Global subscriptions to increase by 65% over next five years

There will be almost 2 billion active SVOD subscriptions by the mid-point of the decade, a new report claims.

According to predictions from Juniper Research, nearly 2 billion subscriptions to services like Netflix and Disney+ will be active in 2025 across the globe, representing an increase of 65% over the end of 2020.

However while the likes of Netflix and Disney will likely dominate the upper tiers of subscriber counts, the research notes that the primary engine for this growth will be from traditional broadcasters who are increasingly turning to streaming services as a means of remaining competitive.

Examples of these broadcasters range from the US players like NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS with their respective streamers Peacock and Paramount+, to local players in Europe such as France Télévisions, TF1 and M6’s Salto and the BBCS-ITV joint venture BritBox.

The research also notes that SVOD services which show some adverts, such as Peacock, will account for US$1.4 billion in ad spend in 2025.Such models are likely to increase in prominence going forward in order to combat streaming fatigue.

Research co-author Nick Hunt said:  “Thanks to this high level of market saturation, streaming providers need to keep their offerings competitive to retain subscribers. Hybrid monetisation is one way that VOD providers can keep their offerings low-cost, and therefore less likely to be dropped.”

In terms of video consumption, this is going to dramatically shift towards mobile usage. The report says that over 70% of streamed video sessions in the next five years will occur on smartphones, in large part due to the emergence of social platforms like TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin. Despite mobile viewing dominating, smartphone ad spend will only grow at a CAGR of 2% per year.