• by Wayne Friedman , October 7, 2020

Although Netflix maintains industry business leadership -- in terms of U.S. subscribers -- among premium video streaming businesses, its market streaming share slipped in the third quarter, according to one industry estimate.

Netflix is at a 25% share of total premium video streams of content -- down from 31% in the second quarter, according to Reelgood, a discovery and guide platform for streaming TV content.

Streamers on the rise include Amazon Prime Video, up slightly at a 21% share (from 20% in the second quarter) and HBO Max, at a 9% share (up from 3%). Hulu is in third place, having declined to 15% from 19% in the second three months of the year. Disney+ remains at a 6% share -- the same number as in the second quarter.

These results come from over two million U.S. Reelgood users based on services’ total share of streams.

Netflix’s decline is partly attributable to overall advertising-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) services taking share away from subscription (ad-free) video-on-demand platforms (SVOD) such as Netflix. AVOD has grown to a 30.8% share from 25% in the second quarter, while SVOD slipped to 47.5% from 52.3%.

Reelgood also notes that TV Everywhere apps/services are declining -- down to a 8.4% share from 11.7%. These apps/services are digital-video TV network platforms that consumers can access for free if they are current paying subscribers of a traditional pay TV service (cable, satellite or telco).

Also rising during the period are rental or owner purchases of individual film and TV content -- such as Disney+’s recent “Mulan” and NBCUniversal's “Trolls World Tour.” These digital entertainment consumer purchases rose to a 13.3% share from 10.9%.