Shutterstock image
Antenna: Niche Streaming Services Spur SVOD Market Growth
September 13, 2023
While Netflix and other top subscription streaming video services drive growth through expanding global distribution, the domestic SVOD market subscriber growth is being driven by smaller, niche services catering to specific streamers, according to new data from Antenna.
Specialty SVOD services such as AMC+, BET+, MGM+, Acorn TV and Britbox have quietly expanded at a combined 37% growth rate for the past four years, significantly higher than Netflix and other big streaming service’s 21% growth, according to Antenna. At the end of 2019, the research firm counted 10 million subscriptions to niche SVOD services, or 7% of the premium plus specialty SVOD market total. By June 2023, that number had grown to 28 million, or 11% of the total.
Antenna currently tracks 25 different niche SVOD services, and the largest, AMC+, accounts for just 11% of the category’s subscriptions. BET+, MGM+ and Britbox are the next largest players. MGM+ was the only service that Antenna observed to grow by more than 1 million net sub adds in the past year. BET+, Crunchyroll, and AMC+ were the next-largest sub growth services.
Subscribe HERE to the FREE Media Play News Daily Newsletter!
While niche SVOD services experience subscriber growth, the proliferation of services has led consumers to manage their over-the-top video portfolio more tenaciously, Antenna notes. As a result, niche streaming platforms have experienced subscriber churn similar to what Antenna observed for premium SVOD services. The firm tallied 6.6 million cancellations in the second quarter, ended June 30, up 65% from the previous year and upwards of 130% from the same period two years ago — during the pandemic. Gross subscriber additions were up over the same period, including 6.8 million in Q2, which represents a 26% uptick year-over-year and a 45% spike from 2021.