When we first socialized the idea for Antenna with industry friends in 2019, the most common objection was, “But how many of these streaming services can the market actually support?” The assumption being that consumers would ultimately reject choice and personalization, and default back to a simple bundle of video channels. And there was evidence to support that point of view: in mid-2019, Netflix and Hulu accounted for nearly 75% of Premium SVOD Subscriptions.
As we have articulated in Antenna’s recent Quarterly Growth Reports (Q1’21, Q4’20), a lot has changed in the last two years in this Premium category. Netflix and Hulu now make up just 48% of category Subscriptions, and have accounted for only 9% of category growth in the past two years.
The success of new services like Disney+, Peacock, and Discovery+, and the growth of existing players like HBO, Showtime and Starz, demonstrates that consumers will support a robust selection of Premium SVOD players.
But another interesting thing has happened. Specialty SVOD services, which focus on one particular audience or content category, have grown significantly faster than the Premium players in the past two years.
Antenna finds that the ten Specialty SVOD services we are tracking have a two year compound annual growth rate [CAGR] or 74%, compared to 30% for our ten Premium SVODs.
In fact, when we look at YoY Subscriber Growth across the 17 services that were available in mid-2020, Specialty services dominate.
As entertainment fans, we can all be excited about this thriving, diverse SVOD market. As Antenna, we can breathe a sign of relief that we do, in fact, have a vibrant ecosystem to measure, after all!
Brendan Brady is a Content Strategy Associate at Antenna, a measurement and analytics company providing insight into purchase behavior and subscription metrics across the new media landscape.
