Kantar said that 9.1% of U.S. households signed up for an additional subscription video-on-demand service in the second quarter, with Amazon Prime Video getting the largest share of those new subscriptions.
According to Kantar’s Entertainment On-Demand service, Prime Video had 23% of the new signups, up from a 14% share in the first quarter. Disney Plus’ share, which led the industry in the first quarter at 30.9%, had just 13.3% of new signups in the second quarter.
Netflix, the leading service, had 15.1% of new signups, followed by Hulu at 10.4%.
New services HBO Max and Peacock had 9.7% and 4.9% of new signups, respectively.
In interviews, 39% of HBO Max sign-ups cited specific content as their key motivator to join, with Game of Thrones, Sopranos and Westworld the top three individual titles driving customer acquisition.
Apple TV Plus had 5.9% of new signups.
Kantar said that 44% of new subscriptions were “stacked,” which means they were bought by households that already have existing SVOD subscriptions. Overall households had an average of 3 subscriptions per household, down slightly fom last quarter despite the launches of HBO Max, Quibi and Peacock within Comcast’s Xfinity footprint.
As Quibi struggled with stay-at-home orders challenging its mobile first business model, Kantar said that already 33% of subscribers plan to cancel in the next three months.
“Q2 2020 has been a busy quarter, with seeing the launch of HBO Max, Quibi and a more limited Peacock launch. HBO can be pleased with progress to date in terms of new subscriber numbers, and importantly at the end of Q220, just 18% were on free trials,” said Dominic Sunnebo, senior VP at Kantar, Worldpanel division. “The key challenge for HBO Max will be enduring longevity of subscribers – there are already some signs that attitudinally, HBO Max subscribers do not view it as a long-term commitment, in the same way they do Netflix. Driving engagement with newer HBO content, alongside headliners like Sopranos and Game of Thrones will be important.
Kantar’s figures are based on a panel of 20,000 consumers, with 2,500 new subscriber interviews being conducted each quarter.
