European Audiovisual Observatory highlights European TV trends

There is no hard evidence of cord-cutting in Europe for now, US groups account for a growing share of audiovisual group revenues and SVOD revenues are growing rapidly. These are a few of the conclusions highlighted by the European Audiovisual Observatory’s Yearbook, which was published this week.

According to the research outfit, citing Ampere Analysis data, despite fears of cord cutting, the total number of pay TV homes in Europe continues to increase, with IPTV now taking a 25% share of the overall pie, cable stagnating over the last five years and satellite growth grinding to a halt.

US groups now account for 72% of the top 50 audiovisual groups’ revenues, up from 66% in 2012, according to the Observatory, again citing Ampere numbers. The top 50 groups’ cumulated revenues grew at an annual rate of 10%, far outperforming the market thanks to ongoing consolidation.

Television viewing time is meanwhile slowly declining across Europe, dropping 0.3% overall between 2012-17, with the sharpest declines seen in Iceland, Denmark, Latvia, Norway and the UK. . viewing time per day ranges from one hour 41 minutes in Iceland to five hours 46 minutes in Romania.

Other findings include a decline in the Blu-ray market alongside a sharper decline in the DVD market. Blu-ray sales fell by 7%, while DVD sales fell by 16% between 2013-17. Overall the physical video market declined by 14%.

Subscription video-on-demand revenues meanwhile grew at an average annual growth rate of 74% and now account for 72% of pay on-demand revenues. On average, pay on-demand services grew by 45% a year between 2013-17.