The launch of Spitting Image aided BritBox UK to reach its highest share of new subscription video-on-demand sign-ups during the final three months of 2020.
That’s according to research published by Kantar, who found that 1.3 million British households took up a new subscription streaming service between October and December 2020. 5.9% of households who took up a new streaming service signed up to BritBox UK, coming ahead of new Now TV and Apple+ sign-ups. Spitting Image was launched at the beginning of October 2020, becoming ITV’s first major commission for the service, in which it has a 90% share*.
Amazon Prime, Netflix and Disney+ took the top spots, with over three quarters of new subscribers opting for one of these services, although Amazon Prime sign-ups may not have been completely driven by streaming. Kanter’s research revealed that a third of Prime subscribers don’t use Prime Video. The 62.6% of subscribers that do access Prime Video benefitted from Amazon’s live rugby and Premier League football coverage during the final weeks of 2020.
1.The Crown (Netflix)
2.The Queens Gambit (Netflix)
3.The Mandalorian (Disney+)
TOP THREE MOST STREAMED SHOWS ON SUBSCRIPTION STREAMING SERVICES IN THE UK, 2020 (Kantar)
Meanwhile, as the number of smart TVs sold continued to grow, the number of households accessing subscription streaming services directly via their smart TV increased to 52%. This came at the expense of streaming sticks, dongles and pay TV receivers, which saw their market share decline. Almost 1 in 6 British homes use TV sticks/dongles to access their subscription streaming services. Amazon Fire TV came top (74% share), compared to 13% for Roku, 5% for AppleTV and 4% for Google Chromecast.
[Kantar]
*BritBox UK’s ownership is 90% ITV, 10% BBC Studios. This is in contrast to a 50/50 shareholding for BritBox USA.