‘ Q3 2013 Q3 2014 Q3 2015 Q3 2016
Netflix 41.7% 46.4% 49.9% 51.8%
Amazon Prime 12.9% 17.9% 19.9% 24.8%
Hulu 9.4% 9.6% 12.1% 9.9%
HBO Now 4.3% 5.2%
YouTube Red 3.1%
Shomi 2.7%
CBS All Access 2.1% 2.1%
Sling TV 1.0% 1.7%
Play Station Vue 1.3% 1.6%
Blockbuster 1.8% 1.2% 1.0% 1.0%
Other 1.5% 1.4% 1.7% 1.8%
Nothing 51.8% 47.3% 43.7% 38.1%
Netflix has continued to dominate the industry and has grown to cover an additional 10% of all homes nationwide since 2013. Hulu increased market share in 2015 but is back down again. But expect Hulu to grow again since they are picking up a lot of new content from its owner programmers. In four years Amazon Prime has doubled, although there is a lot of debate about how many people actually watch the video service since it comes free with the Prime shipping program.
What springs out most from the chart is how the industry is diversifying. In just the last year YouTube Red and Shomi sprang to fifth and sixth place in the industry. And 2014 saw the introduction of Play Station Vue, SlingTV, CBS All Access, and HBO Now. It’s also striking to see the number of homes that don’t watch OTT content drop from 52% in 2013 to only 38% today.
You may be surprised to see Blockbuster still active on the list. While all their stores have closed, the Blockbuster brand is still being used to market OTT movies and is now integrated into SlingTV.
The ‘Other’ category is interesting. On last count there were over 100 different video pay services on the web, yet outside the major OTT players these services together are only seen in 1.8% of households.
This next chart shows what people pay for OTT content, comparing 2014 and today
Monthly Expense Q3 2014 Q3 2016
$1 – $2 2.0% 3.6%
$3 – $5 2.3% 3.2%
$6 – $8 33.4% 16.5%
$9 – $11 21.7% 30.1%
$12 – $14 8.1% 10.0%
$15 – $20 14.0% 15.8%
$21+ 6.8% 10.7%
Use But Don’t Pay 11.1% 10.1%
In just two years the average bills have crept significantly upward. Currently over 2/3 of homes report paying more than $9 per month for OTT service, while in 2014 that was only 51%. Probably more interesting is that 26% of homes pay more than $15 per month for OTT content. My household is in this category and we have subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime (including Starz), and SlingTV.
The percentage of households who told an interviewer that they watch but don’t pay for OTT content dropped slightly, but represents about the same number of people from 2014 to 2016.