EU SVOD: European content and US streamers

Thirty per cent of SVOD viewing in key EU countries is of European content, even though 85% of viewing time is concentrated in US streamers Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+, according to a new report from the European Audiovisual Observatory.

Source: European Audiovisual Observatory

The first edition of the SVOD Usage in the European Union report is based on SVOD viewing time data provided by Goldmedia’s VOD-Ratings in nine EU countries (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Sweden) from September 2022 to September 2023.

According to the report, 85% of viewing time is generated by only three services (Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+). Fiction works accounted for 87% and 95% of viewing time of film and TV seasons. Viewing time is also mainly generated by recent films (produced in 2022-23), which represented 25% of viewing time but only 1% of catalogues.

The report found that, overall, consumption patterns are similar across all countries surveyed. European works accounted for 30% of SVOD viewing time, including 21% for EU works, 9% UK works and 1% for other European works.

According to the study, comparing their share in catalogues and viewing time, overall, US works are over-consumed and European works under-consumed. However, among European works, national works are over consumed in seven out of the nine countries of the sample, whereas EU non-national works are under-consumed in all countries.

Works from outside Europe and the US only account for 8% of viewing time, well under their share of catalogues.

A separate report released simultaneously by the European Audiovisual Observatory, Film and TV content in TVFOD, SVOD and FOD catalogues, found that European works (films and TV content) accounted for 31% of all works in VOD catalogues in 25 member states of the European Union, with works from the EU27 representing 21% and other European works 10% (32% in TVOD catalogues, 31% in SVOD and 26% in free on-demand catalogues).

VOD catalogues in high- and mid-volume film and TV production countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain rely more on national works for their EU27 offering (with 64% of all EU27 works in VOD catalogues in France being of national origin) while VOD catalogues in lower volume production countries rely mostly on EU non-national works for their EU27 works offering (with 1% of EU27 works being of national origin in VOD catalogues in Bulgaria, for example).