Blame it on good content, great pricing and improving internet connectivity to the home. The number of households paying for streaming video services worldwide has broken through the 250 million mark, according to Strategy Analytics report, Home Video and OTT Video Forecast – Global.
The report further predicts this figure to reach 300 million by the end of 2018 and more than 450 million by 2022.
Strategy Analytics’ David Mercer, vice president and principal analyst, estimates average monthly household spending on streaming video services increased by 5.0% in 2017 to $9.46, with 345 million having signed a streaming video subscription by the end of 2017. Excluded in the count are pay-TV services such as NowTV and DirecTV Now.
Figure 1 shows the US with the highest penetration of streaming video services at 59% of households using at least one service at the end of 2017. Australia, South Korea and Japan are in the top 10 with 36%, 35% and 29% penetration respectively. Twelve percent of Chinese households in the mainland also subscription to some form of video streaming service.
Figure 1: % of households paying for streaming video service
Source: Strategy Analytics 2018
“Streaming video is rapidly becoming a normal part of people’s entertainment options,” Strategy Analytics director of TV and media strategies Michael Goodman said. “Usage is already at around half of households in the most mature markets and is likely to reach those levels in many other countries in the near future.
“Clearly market leaders like Netflix and Amazon will benefit from this trend, but there are also major opportunities for media companies which currently focus on more traditional pay TV and content development business models.”