A new report has revealed the number of VoD services launched in the US, UK and EU territories increased by 32 per cent from 2270 in 2017, to 3015 in 2020, with 745 new service launches in just four years.
The Drive New Buyers report, commissioned by content distribution company Drive, found that as the trend of service aggregation continues, it is thought that the fragmented end of the industry composed of small services may grow proportionally faster than the rest.
The appetite for companies to build and launch these services is also being maintained. In Europe, a count of various government licensing and operational listings revealed around 3,000 services had been registered as of 2020, up from just over 2,000, three years prior. “While many of these services will merge or close, a steady flow of new launches will ensure that that small player end of the market remains dynamic and responsive,” said the report.
The report also found that the number of total AVoD users is significantly higher than SVoD users. In the UK and US, AVoD monthly active users has now passed 600 million (aggregated across multiple services).
“We commissioned this report based on our own recent experience of the dramatic rise in VoD revenue to the business,” said joint MD’s Lilla Hurst and Ben Barrett. “Unsurprisingly, we’ve seen an ever-increasing rise in VoD growth over the past three years, and to date this shows no signs of slowing with our 2021 VOD revenues already 50 per cent.
“Domestic growth has largely stagnated for the UK production sector and it’s clear that many new buyers – of which many more may have launched during the pandemic itself, provide UK producers, particularly in the factual space, more opportunities than ever to create vital international revenue streams.”
The full report is available to download here.
