Report: Netflix, Prime, Disney take 85% of European VoD
March 28, 2024
Concentration is the main characteristic of VoD usage in Europe with 85 per cent of viewing time generated by only three services (Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+). Of that viewing, 30 per cent is of European (including UK) content.
These are the main takeaways from two new reports SVOD Usage in the European Union and Film and TV content in TVOD, SVOD and FOD catalogues – 2023 Edition published by the European Audiovisual Observatory, part of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
Scripted content accounted for 87 per cent and 95 per cent of viewing time of film and TV series respectively. Viewing time is also mainly generated by recently released films (produced in 2022-23); they represented 25 per cent of viewing time but only 1 per cent of catalogues.
European works accounted for 30 per cent of SVoD viewing time, including 21 per cent for EU works, 9 per cent UK works and 1 per cent for other European works.
These reports provide an analysis of the consumption of films and TV seasons on SVoD in 9 member states of the European Union in 2022/23 and an analysis of the offer of films and TV seasons in VoD catalogues of 25 member states of the EU in September 2023.
The reports were authored by Christian Grece and Jean-Augustin Tran, TV and VOD Analysts within the Observatory’s Department for Market Information. The VoD catalogue data is provided by JustWatch and the VoD usage data is provided by Goldmedia. The reports were supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Commission.
The first report, SVOD Usage in the European Union, is the first edition of an overview of the viewing time on SVoD services of films and TV series by origin, genre, and – only for films – age. This report is based on SVoD viewing time data provided by Goldmedia’s VoD-Ratings in 9 EU countries (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden) from September 2022 to September 2023.
Even if the limited number of EU countries in the sample does not allow for a proper typology, nuances appear between countries, in particular in terms of genre. But overall, consumption patterns are similar across all countries.
When comparing their share in catalogues and viewing time, US works are systematically overconsumed and European works underconsumed. However, among European works, national works are over consumed in seven out of the nine countries of the sample, whereas EU non-national works are underconsumed in all countries.
Beyond European and US works, of note is the modest weight of consumption of works from other regions of the world (8 per cent, well under their share of catalogues).
Key findings on Film and TV content in TVoD, SVoD and FoD catalogues:
European works (films and TV content) accounted for 31 per cent of all works in VoD catalogues in 25 member states of the European Union, with EU27 works representing 21 per cent and other European works 10 per cent (32 per cent in TVoD catalogues, 31 per cent in SVoD and 26 per cent in FoD catalogues).
For all types of VoD catalogues, European non-national works represented the majority of EU27 works, with 64 per cent of all EU27 works in TVoD catalogues being of EU non-national origin, 78 per cent in SVoD and 67 per cent in FoD catalogues.
VoD catalogues in high- and mid-volume film and TV production countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain rely more on national works for their EU27 offering (with 64 per cent of all EU27 works in VoD catalogues in France being of national origin) while VoD catalogues in lower volume production countries rely mostly on EU non-national works for their EU27 works offering (with 1 per cent of EU27 works being of national origin in VoD catalogues in Bulgaria, for example).