According to Digital TV Research, the number of OTT subscription VOD (SVOD) homes is forecast to reach 428 million across 200 countries by 2021, up from 177 million in 2015 and an expected 248 million by end-2016. The total is expected to grow by 70 million in 2016 alone.

Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: "North America supplies most of these subscribers at present, but Asia Pacific will become the top region by 2019. This comes despite Netflix being unlikely to secure direct access in China and only making a limited impact in other major population centers such as India and Indonesia. There are some large SVOD platforms in Asia Pacific that have been active for some time, especially via mobile phones."

The United States (127 million subscribers forecast by 2021) is expected to remain the SVOD market leader by some distance, although China (74 million forecast in 2021 - up by 34 million on 2016) is expected to record strong growth to close the gap.

The research house forecasts that Netflix will have almost 118 million paying subs by 2021 - or 27.5% of the global total. Although Netflix's number of international subscribers is expected to overtake its U.S. ones in 2018, U.S. subscribers are still expected to constitute 44% of its subs by 2021.

Subscription revenues for Netflix are expected to double from $6.37 billion in 2015 to $13.14 billion in 2021. Despite growth elsewhere, North America is still expected to contribute 52% of its total in 2021.

Murray said: "We estimate that Netflix has distribution partnerships with 79 pay TV, telco or mobile operators across 44 countries. These partnerships include multinational deals with Liberty Global, Millicom/Tigo and Telia."

Global SVOD revenues are expected to reach $32.18 billion in 2021, 18 times the $1.74 billion recorded in 2010 and up by $20 billion on the $12.20 billion recorded in 2015. Revenues are expected to grow by $5 billion in 2016 alone to take the total to $17.46 billion.