January 25, 2023
Multiple SVODs Grow In U.S. TV Homes
- by Wayne Friedman , July 17, 2017
Multiple subscription video-on-demand (VOD) services in U.S. TV homes show continued growth.
A recent study says 38% of TV homes subscribe to two or more major subscription VOD services such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. This is up from 26% a year ago, according to Hub Entertainment Research.
The number of those have all major SVOD services has risen, with fourteen percent who subscribe to all three platforms -- more than double the percentage of 6% in 2016.
The results came from a survey of 1,806 U.S. consumers with broadband access who watch at least five hours of TV per week. Data was collected in June 2017.
Research also showed that 66% of viewers surveyed subscribe to at least one of the major SVOD services -- Netflix, Amazon or Hulu -- up from 62% in 2016.
Among those with multiple SVODs, 75% said Netflix was the first SVOD they subscribed to, while 62% subscribe either to Netflix alone or to Netflix with Amazon or Hulu.
About 6% have an Amazon or Hulu subscription without Netflix.
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It's really misleading to include Amazon Prime in such tallies as most of its "SVOD" subs actually are in it for the free shipping not the videos. Amazon Prime's actual video user levels are very low considering its claims regarding the number of "subscribers", as has been shown by recent meter based reports by comScore. The same is true for all of SVOD, but to a lesser extent. Just because a home subscribes to a service that doesn't mean that its content is viewed with great frequency. Upwards of 25-30% of a SVOD service's subs may not watch any of its offerings in a particular month.
Hey Ed,
Thanks for your comment. A couple of clarifications on how we asked about these platforms:
In our studies we include an extra question to be able to differentiate between Amazon Prime subscribers, and Amazon Prime subscribers who actually use Amazon Prime streaming video content. You are right that many studies don't make this distinction, and it's not a trivial difference. Many Amazon Prime users predate the availability of video content (and photos, and music, etc.) as part of their subscription, and so even though they have access it doesn't occur to them to use it. (Yet)
You're also correct that subscribing to a service is not the same as using it frequently. We have a separate battery of questions that look at distribution of total TV time. And you're right that Amazon is less likely to be someone's default source of TV than Netflix or live TV.
Thanks, Jon, that helps.