SVOD Spend to Reach €3 Billion in Western Europe

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LONDON: Total spending on SVOD in Western Europe hit the €2 billion mark ($2.24 billion) in 2015 and is forecast to reach €3 billion ($3.35 billion) by year-end 2016, according to a new report from IHS Markit.

As existing services reach saturation in key markets, year-on-year growth in spending on online SVOD in Western Europe will slow into the forecast period (2016-2020), the report said. Even this slower increase in value generated from SVOD will be sufficient to make the platform the largest in terms of total home video spending. By 2018, IHS Technology forecasts SVOD will account for 49 percent of home-video spending in the region and is set to increase to a 58-percent share by 2020.

“The multi-territory international players changed the game dramatically for SVOD in Western Europe in a very short period of time,” said Tania Loeffler, analyst at IHS Technology. “When Netflix launched in the U.K., total consumer spending on SVOD in Western Europe more than doubled to €307.6 million ($344 million) in 2012. By the end of 2014, that figure had more than tripled to €1.1 billion ($1.23 billion) due to Netflix’s European expansion and the launch of Amazon Prime in the U.K., Germany and Austria.”

Smaller markets have outperformed their larger neighbors in terms of SVOD spending: Nordic countries, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland. “These smaller individual markets are relatively affluent, but they do generate disproportionately significant consumer spending from the much smaller populations from which they can draw SVOD subscribers,” Loeffler said.

The U.K. will remain the standout market in terms of consumer spending on SVOD in Western Europe. The country is forecast to generate over €1 billion ($1.1 billion) by year-end 2017 and will retain a consistent 35-percent share of total SVOD market spending through to 2020.