According to Digital TV Research, the North American over-the-top (OTT) subscription VOD (SVOD) sector is by far the most mature in the world, with 112 million SVOD subscribers to movie and TV episode platforms by end-2016. However, the research house says, there is plenty of growth left in the sector. The SVOD total is forecast to climb to 171 million by 2022, up by 59 million on 2016 or by 53%.
Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: "It is important to stress that these figures are gross - many homes take more than one SVOD platform, especially in the U.S. That explains why we forecast 132% SVOD penetration of U.S. TV households by 2022."
Digital TV Research forecasts that 70.3% of U.S. TV households (85 million) will subscribe to at least one SVOD platform by 2022. The average SVOD household is expected to pay for 1.88 SVOD platforms, compared to 60.3% of TV households (70 million) subscribing to at least one SVOD platform by end-2016. The average SVOD subscriber paid for 1.5 SVOD platforms at end-2016. Therefore, SVOD penetration growth of TV households is expected to slow considerably, but SVOD homes are expected to buy more services.
The research house forecasts that most of the dual SVOD subscriptions will be for Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Those two platforms are expected to account for 72.5% of North America's SVOD subscribers by 2022, down from 78.6% in 2017.
Netflix is expected to have 59 million subscribers in the United States by 2022 (up by 11 million or 23% on end-2016) and 7 million in Canada (up by 26% on 2016).