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Antenna: SVOD Market Growth Slowing, Despite New Specialty Service Launches
September 3, 2025
Despite the recent launches of the ESPN direct-to-consumer service, Fox’s “Fox One” platform, CNN All Access, and Roku’s budget “Howdy” service, the SVOD market growth continues to cool.
New data from Antenna Research found that specialty SVOD subscriptions increased by 12% year-over-year in the first half through June 30 (before the launch of the aforementioned services), down from a 22% jump during the previous-year period. The number of new consumers signing up for a non-premium streamer for the first time is also decelerating at 3.2 million, down from 3.4 million in Q2 2024.
Specialty streamers include A&E Crime Central, Acorn TV, ALLBLK, AMC+, BBC Select, BET+, BritBox, Cinemax, Crunchyroll, CuriosityStream, Gaia, Hallmark+, History Vault, Lifetime Movie Club, MGM+, PBS Documentaries, PBS KIDS, PBS Masterpiece, PureFlix, Shudder, Sundance Now, UP Faith & Family, ViX Premium and Zeus Network.
While Netflix and now Disney no longer report quarterly DTC subscriber data, the total number of North American SVOD subscribers increased 10% to 339 million, from more than 308 million. That’s down from 12% growth in 2024.
At the same time, churn — the number of subscribers not renewing service — is also moderating, decreasing from 7% in June of the past two years to 6.6% this year.
The report found that premium SVOD growth dropped to 10% in the first six months of the year from 11% during the same period last year. Premium services, which include Apple TV+, Discovery+, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock, and Starz, now total 250 million subscribers.
Non-premium SVOD services, which include specialty platforms, sports-themed, and vMVPDs, saw a 6% increase in subscribers to 89 million, from 83.9 million last year.
Sports-themed SVOD subscriptions growth dropped to 1% from 5% last year. Services include DAZN, ESPN+, FanDuel Sports Network, MLB TV, MLS Season Pass, NBA League Pass, NFL+, NFL Sunday Ticket and UFC Fight Pass.
Virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD) subscriptions cooled from growth of 15% in the first six months of 2024 to 5% this year. Services include DirecTV Stream, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, Philo, Sling TV, and YouTube TV.
“One might call this a moment of ‘un-consolidation’ in the media industry,” read the report. “The launch of at least four significant streaming services: ESPN DTC, Fox One, CNN All Access, and
Roku’s Howdy … demonstrates the sophistication and diversity of tastes among American subscribers. That broad range of preferences also supports the continued rise of specialty SVOD, which continues to outpace premium SVOD growth.”
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