Pay cable vs. SVOD: How they stack up
Subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu and Amazon have shot up since 2010
January 28, 2016
The three biggest subscription-based video-on-demand services have more than quadrupled their subscribers since 2010, going from 24.4 million to 107.7 million.
That’s a huge jump, and you’d expect that it would mean big declines for their biggest offline competitors, premium cable networks.
After all, many of the movies available on HBO can be found on Amazon, and most households don’t want to be paying another $10 to $15 per month for multiple movie services.
But so far that doesn’t seem to be the case. SVOD is not cannibalizing premium cable.
In fact, HBO, Showtime and Starz are all at all-time highs in households, and they’re adding more subscribers through online-only services as well.
Like premium cable, which can see as much as a third of its subscribers flee with other taking their place during a given year, SVOD has big churn rates.
Parks Associates says 60 percent of SVOD subscribers have canceled one or more service in the past year. Yet they appear to ping to other services instead of abandoning SVOD altogether, accounting for the healthy growth.
Here’s a look at how the three biggest SVOD sites compare to the three biggest premium cable networks.
While Netflix and Amazon have moved ahead in total subscribers, cable has tallied notable growth since 2010 even against that added competition.
SVOD SITES
NETFLIX
Owner: Netflix
U.S. subscribers: 44.7 million
Growth since 2010: +24.6 million
Signature shows: “House of Cards,” “Orange is the New Black,” “Making a Murderer”
Interesting fact: Netflix accounted for more than a third of all web entertainment traffic in 2015.
AMAZON
Owner: Amazon
U.S. subscribers: 54 million
Growth since 2010: +50 million
Signature shows: “Transparent,” “Mozart in the Jungle,” “The Man in the High Castle”
Interesting fact: Amazon video subscriptions come as part of an Amazon Prime subscription, which offers free two-day shipping for online orders. About 40 percent of Amazon Prime subscribers watch video every week, which equals 21.6 million people.
HULU
Owner: Disney-ABC Television Group, Fox Broadcasting and NBCUniversal Television Group
U.S. subscribers: 9 million
Growth since 2010: +8.7 million
Signature shows: “The Mindy Project,” “The Awesomes,” “Casual”
Interesting fact: Hulu has the highest churn rate of the Big Three SVOD sites.
***
PAY CABLE NETWORKS
HBO
Owner: Time Warner
U.S. subscribers: 32.3 million
Growth since 2010: +4.3 million
Signature shows: “Game of Thrones,” “Girls,” “Veep”
Interesting fact: Analysts project that HBO Now, the network’s over-the-top service launched last year, will have 5 million subscribers by 2020.
STARZ
Owner: Starz
U.S. subscribers: 23.3 million
Growth since 2010: +6.1 million
Signature shows: “Outlander,” “Black Sailes,” “Flesh and Bone”
Interesting fact: Starz surpassed Showtime in subscribers for the first time ever in 2015.
SHOWTIME
Owner: CBS Corp.
U.S. subscribers: 23.2 million
Growth since 2010: +3.2 million
Signature shows: “Homeland,” “The Affair,” “Shameless”
Interesting fact: The network has been trying to draw new subscribers by sampling its shows for free online prior to their debuts. New drama “Billions” drew 1.4 million online viewers before its Jan. 17 bow, a new record.
Note: Numbers culled from Parks Associates, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, SNL Kagan and quarterly numbers from the companies themselves.
Tags: amazon, hbo, hulu, netflix, showtime, starz, streaming video on demand, svod
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