Disney+, Apple TV+ Saw Big Q1 Market Gains in the U.K.

Disney+ and Apple TV+ saw big market gains across U.K. households in the first quarter (ended March 31), according to new data from Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board, the U.K.’s television audience measurement survey.

The data enables BARB to understand the characteristics of U.K. households, part of ensuring that its daily reporting of television audiences is representative of the whole population.

During the quarter 6.53 million homes had access to Disney+, up 19% from 5.49 million homes in fourth quarter (ended Dec. 31, 2021). Another 1.57 million homes had access to Apple TV+, up 27% from 1.24 million homes in the previous quarter.

The survey found that the number of U.K. households with access to a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service reached 19.57 million homes (68.5% of households), an increase of almost 500,000 homes since Q4 2021.

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Of those homes, Netflix maintained a dominating market presence at more than 88%, or 17.29 million homes, up 3% from 16.79 million homes in the previous quarter.

Another 13.35 million homes (68%) had access to Amazon Prime Video, up 6% from 12.57 million in Q4 2021. More than 2.13 million homes had access to Comcast/Sky’s Now TV, an increase of 4% from 2.06 million the previous quarter.

The number of U.K. homes with two or more services now stands at 13.2 million homes (46.3% of households), up from 12.4 million homes in Q4 2021.

Report: 60% of U.K. Homes Have SVOD — Driven by Netflix

New data from Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board found that 60% of U.K. households (17 million) now have subscription VOD service through September. That’s up from 3 million households in the previous-year period.

Notably, Netflix dominates among those homes with 14.8 million subscriptions, just behind Brazil’s 15+ million subs. By comparison, Disney+, which launched in the U.K. in March, has about 3.4 million subs.

Meanwhile, Amazon Prime Video, which acquired U.K.’s LoveFilm in 2011 to enter the by-mail DVD movie rental business, has 9.5 million subs. Amazon morphed streaming service LoveFilm Instant into Amazon Prime Instant Video — a precursor to Prime Video.

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“It’s no surprise to see these [SVOD services] growing strongly as people have been forced to spend more time at home this year,” BARB CEO Justin Sampson said in a statement

Sampson said the organization has been able to track SVOD data through the installation of meters on WiFi routers in its panel of monitored homes.

“Preliminary data show aggregate viewing levels to SVOD and video-sharing platforms, while we plan to augment these with SVOD content ratings in 2021,” Sampson said.