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It looks like the industry pivot back towards ads is paying off for streaming platformers, at least in the U.K.
According to a report from U.K. ratings body Barb, Netflix and Disney+ both increased the number of homes with access to their ad tiers in the third financial quarter of 2024. Netflix saw 13.1% of its U.K. base join the ad tier, equating to 3.8 million homes, up from 2.78 million in Quarter 2. Meanwhile Disney+ grew its ad tier from 820,000 homes in the second quarter to 1.2 million in the third, representing 4.1% of its subscriber base.
Barb did not provide data for Prime Video+’s second quarter ad tier but reported that in in the third quarter 86% of homes with access to the platform are on its ad tier.
The data is likely related to the ongoing cost of living crisis in the U.K. which continues even as many streamers up their monthly fees across all tiers. This would tally with the research body’s findings that while overall access to at least one streaming platform per U.K. household remained steady in Q3 (over 20 million households), those subscribing to at least two services dipped to below 14 million homes.
Of the most popular paid-for streaming platforms, Netflix, Apple TV+ and U.K.-only Now (operated by Comcast-owned broadcaster Sky) all showed marginal growth in the U.K. in Quarter 3 – Netflix by 0.4%, AppleTV+ by 0.3% and Now by 0.2% — while Prime Video and Disney+ were down by 0.8% and 0.4% respectively.
U.K. access to Paramount+ and Discovery+ remained flat in the third quarter, at 9.7% and 11.1% of homes respectively.
Overall, 20.1 million U.K. homes had access to at least one SVOD service in Q3, slightly up from 20 million in the last quarter.
“After strong growth in Q1 and Q2 it was perhaps inevitable that the growth in homes accessing subscription VOD services would slow,” said Doug Whelpdale, head of insight at Barb. “The overall number of homes accessing at least one SVOD service remained above 20 million, but the number with more than two services dipped to below 14 million homes. Suggesting viewers continue to remain wary of economic turbulence.”
“This stability in overall subscriber numbers further demonstrates why services are exploring other avenues to continue revenue growth. While Amazon is likely to be the biggest ad tier for some time, it’s interesting to see the growth of the Netflix ad tier towards 4 million homes and Disney+ past 1 million homes. With darker evenings and the festive season on the horizon the number of ad tier homes for Netflix and Disney seems likely to grow.”