Antenna: Specialty SVOD Services See Gains

A new study from Antenna spotlights the demand for specialty SVOD services like AMC+ and Crunchyroll in the U.S., with subs up 26.9 percent in 2023 and 19.8 percent this year.

“Streaming skeptics have long-posited that consumers would have a strict limit on the number of services for which they would be willing to sign up,” says the State of Subscriptions report on speciality SVOD by Jonathan Carson, Antenna’s co-founder and CEO, and Brendan Brady, director of strategy. “According to that logic, niche streamers who cater to specific audiences or programming genres should have a difficult time thriving. But the specialty SVOD category has seen robust growth in the past several years, outpacing premium SVOD, albeit off a smaller base.”

The report adds, “As more households cut the linear TV cord and gain comfort with streaming as their primary mode of video viewing, they seek out a broader set of brands. Second, as the largest premium streamers focus on profitability, they are deploying ‘fewer, bigger’ programming strategies which focus on shows that appeal to the masses. This leaves an opening for specialty players who have a tight focus on a specific genre or audience. Third, Amazon Channels has been uniquely successful at driving discovery of smaller streaming services, with a user interface and experience that emphasizes individual shows, no matter which service they come from.”

Antenna found that 31 percent of SVOD consumers transacted with speciality SVOD by the end of Q2. Amazon Channels has been key to that traffic, producing 58 percent of sign-ups through the first half of this year.

Speciality SVOD subs are up almost 20 percent this year to just under 35 million. Premium SVOD is up 7.7 percent this year to almost 250 million. Speciality services recorded 18.4 million gross additions in the first half; there were 32.2 million in all of 2023. AMC+ was out front this year with 3 million gross additions in the first half, a 15 percent share of new subs. MGM+, which added the most subs in 2023, at 4.2 million, had a 14 percent share of this year’s new additions, with Crunchyroll just behind at 12 percent and BritBox at 8 percent. BET+ and ViX Premium had 7 percent and 5 percent shares, respectively, of new additions.

While speciality is growing, it does have a higher churn rate, of 7.6 percent as of June, as compared with premium VOD’s 4.6 percent.