For the first time, the number of households subscribing to at least one streaming service has exceeded 70%. But slow upward progress highlights a growing streaming divide.
- Slow progress in saturated market, with Netflix’s cheaper ad-supported option pulling in more subscribers
- Paramount+ flat ahead of WBD streaming takeover
- Large, persistant minority that don’t take any subscription streaming service
Audience measurement organisation Barb has revealed the number of homes with access to at least one streaming video service (SVoD) has finally cracked the 70% barrier.
Progress has been a long time coming, with streamers inventing new ad-funded tiers and bundling services to boost growth. The Q1 2026 figure in Barb’s Establishment Survey takes the number of SVoD UK homes from 20.6 million to 20.8 million (70.3%).
Netflix continued to lead the market in subscriber numbers. Disney+ and Netflix ad tiers attracted the most new subscribers. Many subscription services remained flat in the three month period after Christmas, indicating that households had not widely opted to cancel subscriptions after the festivities amidst cost of living concerns.
| Streaming service | Number of UK homes with access (Q1 2026) | Change (Q4 2025 v Q1 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Netflix | 18.1 million (61%) | 🔼0.1 million |
| Prime Video | 13.7 million (46.1%) | 🔽0.1 million |
| Disney+ | 7.8 million (26.1%) | 🔼0.2 million |
| Discovery+* | 3.5 million (11.8%) | 🔼0.1 million |
| Paramount+ | 3.5 million (11.7%**) | ↔️0 |
| Apple TV | 3.1 million (10.4%) | 🔼0.1 million |
| NOW | 2.0 million (6.8%) | ↔️0 |
*Research period covers pre-HBO Max launch, when TNT Sports was still part of Discovery+
**Rounded up to 3.5 million, which is why the percentage figure differs to Discovery+
Paramount+ remained flat, although its expected to benefit from its parent company’s takeover of Warner Bros Discovery. It will also become the home of live men’s Champions League football in 2027. The research covered the period immediately before TNT Sports transferred from Discovery+ to HBO Max.
How does this compare to the heyday of traditional pay TV?
At the end of 2011, when the number of UK households was just over 26 million, 10.4 million homes had Sky TV. Of Virgin Media’s customer base, 3.7 million homes subscribed to its pay TV service. BT Vision, BT’s first generation TV service, attracted 0.679 million customers.
That meant just over 55% of UK homes had access to one of the main pay TV services.
Moving forward 15 years, the majority of homes that have pay TV today also subscribe to streaming services – or at least on a technicality. Sky, for instance, bundles a range of streaming apps at no extra cost. Active users would be counted as a subscriber, even if they didn’t actually pay anything to that service.
The flexibility of subscription streaming services has opened up premium content to more viewers, notably younger viewers who may not own their own home and may not want to commit to longer contracts or the installation of receiving equipment.
The persistent minority
Nevertheless, that still leaves almost 30% of homes without subscription services.
These include what streamers may deem hard to reach audiences, which may not necessarily be commercially viable to reach out to.
Limitations of the data
HBO Max, which only launched right at the end of the three month survey period, isn’t included in the stats this time around.
The data doesn’t reveal how many subscribers get one or more of the above services as part of another subscription, or at no extra cost. Notably, the survey focuses on the number of homes “with access to” a service. Many services are bundled with traditional pay TV services, or included as part of a packaged bank account or mobile contract.
The data is published by Barb, the UK’s audience measurement organisation. It was originally set up by the UK’s main broadcasters and advertisers. While it regularly reports on subscription streaming services, it is notably less active in publishing similar stats on the free streaming services of the main UK broadcasters involved in Barb.
Therefore, there’s no comparable information on the proportion of homes using BBC iPlayer, ITVX or Channel 4 streaming. Premium subscription tiers on ITVX and Channel 4 streaming are also absent from the analysis. All of this means it’s not possible to scrutinise any overlap between homes paying for streaming services and homes that only watch free streaming services. The only stats from these services come from a mix of non-independently varied stats from broadcaster’s press releases and various research analysis notes commissioned by the UK Parliament and/or Ofcom.
By: Marc Thornham