Streaming video is gaining penetration with 64% of U.S. broadband households having an SVOD subscription, according to a new report from Parks Associates.
Parks Associates’ OTT Video Market Tracker found that two thirds of the households with video subscriptions were members of the top three services, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu.
The study found that 36% of broadband households now subscribe to two or more more video services.
Parks determines that the top OTT video service is Netflix, despite Amazon Prime having more members because not all Prime members use Prime Video.
The rest of the top 10 OTT video services are Hulu, HBO Now, Starz, MLB.TV, Showtime, CBS All Access, Sling TV and DirecTV Now.
“HBO, Starz, Showtime, and CBS All Access demonstrate the powerful attractiveness of original content through series like Game of Thrones and Star Trek: Discovery,” said Brett Sappington, senior director of research at Parks. “This pattern suggests new services such as WarnerMedia’s DC Universe and the forthcoming streaming service from Disney could achieve success quickly.”
Over the past three years, OTT churn rates have gradually fallen each year from 31% of OTT subscriptions cancelled each year in 2015 to 28% in 2018, Parks said.
The online pay-TV audience is similar to the OTT audience—they are younger and quicker to adopt new technologies when compared to traditional pay-TV households.
The top subscription sports OTT video services are MLB.TV, WWE Network, and ESPN+.
“MLB.TV continues to lead the sports OTT subscription category, benefiting from its long tenure as a streaming service and popularity among dedicated baseball fans," Parks said. "WWE also has a dedicated fan base and publicly reported having over 1.2 million U.S. subscribers at the end of Q3 2018.1 ESPN+ is a newcomer to the OTT video marketplace but recently announced that it had exceeded 1 million subscribers.”
