BARB: 66% of UK homes now SVOD subscribers

Two-thirds of British households now subscribe to at least one streaming service. 

According to UK audience measurement firm BARB, the number of UK households with a subscription to any SVOD service is now 18.8 million homes (66%), up from 17.4 million in Q3 2020.

Netflix is the market leader, subscribed to by 16.8 million homes. Amazon Prime Video is in second place with 12.5 million subscriptions, while Disney+ is subscribed to by 4.8 million households. Sky’s streaming business NOW is in 2.3 million British homes.

Subscription stacking is also becoming increasingly normalised in the UK. The proportion of homes with an SVOD service that subscribe to two or more services has risen to 65.3%, up from 58.3% in Q3 2020.

Justin Sampson, BARB’s Chief Executive, said: “The attraction of the new creates an inevitable focus on findings that show the continued growth of SVOD services. BARB will provide even more insight with the launch of daily viewing data for these and other streaming services later this year. This development reinforces our ability to meet the industry’s need for a trusted and impartial audience-measurement currency.”