• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, July 26, 2022

After stalling for the first time in this year’s first quarter, the number of U.S. households with subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) subscriptions rose by two percentage points quarter-over-quarter in Q2, according to Kantar’s Entertainment on Demand Service. 

SVOD (paid streaming without ads) reached 82.9% household penetration in the quarter. Meanwhile, ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) grew 1.6% points to 26.9% household penetration, and FASTs (free ad-supported streamers) grew 2.1 points to 22.3%. 

While all three tiers drove growth of streaming in Q2’22, FAST’s growth rate slowed by two percentage points quarter over quarter, while AVOD’s growth rate increased by three points. 

As of June, 113 million U.S. households were accessing at least one streaming service. 

Streaming service stacking also grew quarter-over-quarter in Q2, with the average household now having five services. 

The growth “underscores the resiliency of streaming and consumer demand despite challenging economic conditions for US households,” notes Kantar. 

However, churn remains high, with 8% of subscriptions cancelled during Q2, and consumer perceptions of “value” are increasingly important to retention as service competition intensifies. 

Netflix’s share of households continued to decline in Q2 — down six percentage points year-over-year, to 61%. 

Part of that is due to Amazon Prime Video, which grabbed the largest share of new U.S. SVOD subscribers (20.5%) for a fifth consecutive quarter (see table above), to Netflix’s 6.5%. 

Disney+, Apple TV+ and HBO Max also gained larger shares of new subs than Netflix, although another new entry, Paramount+, did not. 

Of course, as by far the most mature streamer, Netflix’s growth would be expected to slow because of its high penetration rate. 

In contrast to streaming, cable TV continued its decline, losing more than 1 million subscribers between this year’s first two quarters. Cable’s U.S. household penetration rate is now at 55%.