The value of the UK’s screen industry rose by 5.4 per cent during 2025, to £13.3 billion, according to figures from the British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE).
According to the organisation, SVoD and AVoD helped drive the surge, as well as compensating for what BASE said was a decline in the value of tradtional pay TV.
The UK entertainment industry (streaming, transactional home entertainment, pay TV, cinema, games, music) delivered a “record-breaking” year in 2025 with total market value reaching £34 billion, an 8 per cent increase on 2024, added BASE. Visual home entertainment consumer spend accounted for 17 per cent of that number.
The value of the home entertainment market in the UK rose by 10 per cent year-on-year to an all-time high of £5.7 billion, which includes streaming, buying, and renting films and TV shows.
“The scale of this success in the UK reflects Britain’s status as one of the world’s most advanced and dynamic screen-consumption markets, with a particularly innovative and forward-thinking category open to collaboration and innovation,” said BASE.
Some 20.3 million UK households subscribed to at least one streaming service during 2025, an increase of nearly half a million compared to 2024, when nearly 70 per cent of viewers watched streamed content.
According to BASE, 58 per cent of UK adults now pay for at least one streaming service with ads, despite 55 per cent of consumers reporting that they dislike ads but prioritise the cost savings.
Speaking about the findings, Yasmin Nevard, head of insights at BASE, said: “As we look back across 2025 and into 2026, the direction of travel for the screen entertainment industry is clear: growth is being driven not by a single model, but by how well different models work together.
“Our data consistently shows that theatrical, transactional and streaming are most powerful when they are complementary rather than competitive, with transactional continuing to act as a vital value bridge, extending engagement and sustaining revenue across the release lifecycle. Technology, including AI-driven curation and recommendations, will play a role in responding to this, but it is clarity of insight that will determine success.”
