US SVOD subscriptions tipped to reach 208m in 2023

The number of video-on-demand subscriptions in the US is due to climb from 132 million in 2017 to 208 million in 2023, with Netflix and Amazon to retain their positions as the top two services.

This is according to a new Digital TV Research report, which estimates that 73.5% of TV households in the US, some 88.5 million homes, will subscribe to at least one SVOD platform by 2023 – up from 55% of TV homes at the end of 2017.

The report predicts that the average US subscription video-on-demand household will pay for 2.35 SVOD platforms by 2023, compared to 2.03 on average at the end of 2017.

Netflix is tipped to hold the top spot in terms of popularity with 67.3 million US subscribers in 2023, up from 52.8 million in 2017.

Amazon is expected to follow with 60.6 million subscribers (up from 45.0 million in 2017), then Hulu with 28.1 million (up from 16.5 million) and HBO Now with 7.9 million (up from 4.1 million).

“Our SVOD forecasts include homes watching Amazon Prime Video as part of their Amazon Prime subscription. We have included half the Amazon Prime fee as an SVOD subscription to Amazon Video homes, even though homes are not directly paying for Amazon Video,” said Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research.

“Our SVOD subscriber forecasts are gross. Many homes pay for more than one SVOD service. We believe that this proportion will rise as more platforms establish themselves.”