North American SVOD Market to Add 59 Million Subs

North America is expected to see 171 million SVOD subscribers to movie and TV episode platforms by 2022, up 53 percent on 2016, according to Digital TV Research.

The North American SVOD sector is by far the most mature in the world, yet there is plenty of growth left. The SVOD total is forecast to grow by 59 million subscribers on 2016.

According to the North America OTT TV & Video Forecasts report, 70.3 percent of U.S. TV households (85 million) will subscribe to at least one SVOD platform by 2022. The average SVOD household will pay for 1.88 SVOD platforms. This compares to 60.3 percent of TV households (70 million) subscribing to at least one SVOD platform by end-2016. The average SVOD subscriber paid for 1.5 SVOD platforms at end-2016. Therefore, SVOD penetration growth of TV households will slow considerably, but SVOD homes will buy more services.

Most of the dual SVOD subscriptions will be for Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, according to Digital TV Research. These two platforms will account for 72.5 percent of North America’s SVOD subscribers by 2022—down from 78.6 percent in 2017.

Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “It is important to stress that these figures are gross—many homes take more than one SVOD platform, especially in the U.S. That explains why we forecast 132 percent SVOD penetration of U.S. TV households by 2022.”