Netflix dominates growth in UK VOD

Newly-released data reveals that Netflix acquired around 1.8m UK subscribers in 2015, with a membership growth of 37%. This puts the streaming service ahead of VOD-enabled home systems such as Now TV,Virgin Media and TalkTalk, however Netflix still lags behind YouTube, which boasts 35m monthly UK users.

Netflix added an estimated 1.8 million UK members during 2015, according to Enders Analysis.

Enders says the 37% growth takes the subscription service to 5.2 million subscribers, and ahead of the 1.3 million VOD-enabled homes added by fixed-line telcos Sky (including Now TV), Virgin Media, BT and TalkTalk. SVOD homes overlap with pay-TV accounts, and are topping up content for family members, not cord-cutting.

It’s anticipated that Amazon Prime Instant Video, bundled as part of the online store’s Prime delivery service, will “balloon” from 1.6 million users in Q4 2015 on the back of marketing for Jeremy Clarkson’s new motoring show. Enders believes Clarkson will help Amazon leverage its 25% share of the e-commerce market.

YouTube remains the big beast with 35 million monthly unique users in the UK.