Number of Homes with Multiple SVOD Subs on the Rise

NEW YORK: An increasing number of U.S. audiences are opting to subscribe to more than one SVOD service, GfK research indicates, with that number rising from 10 percent of the viewing population to 16 percent in three years.

The data was released in a new report from GfK’s The Home Technology Monitor, which describes these subs as “self-bundling” viewers, paying for combinations of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and other streaming services. These customers are more likely to have kids under 18 in their homes (50 percent, versus an average of 41 percent among all weekly viewers of any type). The “self-bundlers” also have higher mean incomes than average weekly viewers, at $90,000 per year versus $76,000. These multi-SVOD customers are also less likely to subscribe to traditional pay-TV services (67 percent versus an average of 75 percent).

GfK measured subs to 16 SVOD platforms; about half of respondents subscribe to at least one, 17 percent have Netflix and Amazon Prime, 9 percent have Netflix and Hulu Plus and 5 percent have Netflix, Prime and Hulu.

The report also noted that households with Netflix and Hulu (59 percent) are less likely to have a pay-TV service than those with Netflix and Amazon Prime (67 percent).

“As consumers start to self-bundle, the potential impact of increasing subscriber fees for each streaming service will be compounded,” said David Tice, senior VP of media and entertainment at GfK. “The last one to a price increase party may be the first one canceled—so individual streaming services need to consider competitor plans before instituting price hikes. There may also be a place in the market for a third-party aggregator of discounted streaming services.”