SVOD Stacking Direct to Consumer Services Set to Move the Needle

The 20,000 Foot View:  In the attention economy, everyone is your competitor – a point well made by Netflix’s Reed Hastings’ observation that the company is now vying for viewer time with the popular game Fortnite. Now that we are entering the post-peak phase of the attention economy, the focus for video is shifting to the overlap between subscription video on demand (SVOD) users and the additional services they use. In the early days of streaming, audiences usually had just one video subscription (typically Netflix). Now, however, the long-term effect of exclusive original content strategy is consumers having multiple SVOD subscriptions, or SVOD stacking. With a ream of new direct to consumer            services coming to market, SVOD stacking will grow and in turn accelerate the decline in traditional pay-TV spend.

Key Findings

• The rise                       streaming services like Disney+ will            the number of households with            video subscriptions
• SVOD stackers                       of all SVOD users, rising                       of binge viewers
• SVOD stackers                       of pay-tv subscribers,            of cord            and            of cord shavers
• SVOD stackers            a clear Millennial skew:            of            SVOD subscribers are            years old
           of 20-24-year olds have multiple SVOD subscriptions, making them the most digitally promiscuous age group
• At                       year            are the least likely to            SVOD stackers 
           of Netflix subscribers are Spotify subscribers and            are Amazon Prime Music subscribers            of Amazon Prime Video subscribers are also Netflix subscribers
• Japan at            the highest share of Netflix            with multiple SVOD subscriptions
           of Amazon Prime Video users are also Amazon Prime Music users; however,            use Spotify
• The days            SVOD monogamy are fading, but            pay-TV average revenue per user            could rise
• Amazon sets            model of best practice for            to compete both with and            Netflix

Companies and Products Mentioned:  Amazon Music, Amazon Prime Video, Apple Music, Deezer, Disney+, ESPN+, Netflix, Spotify, Warner Media, Comcast, NBCUniversal