Survey: North America Will Drive Less Than Half of Subscription Streaming Revenues by 2024
North America is where streaming first got its start. American companies like Netflix and Hulu showed users what watching TV on-demand without a cable or satellite could look like, and ever since streaming has become a global phenomenon, with hundreds of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services available worldwide.
But new data from Ampere Analysis shows that North America is preparing to relinquish one aspect of its streaming dominance. By 2024, Ampere predicts that less than half of all global SVOD revenues will come from North America. Western Europe is the region that will see the most growth, as 20% of total SVOD revenues will be generated there next year. Western Europe will overtake the Asia Pacific region as the second-largest over-the-top (OTT) market next year, as well.
Click the picture to see Ampere’s graph on global SVOD spending.
There are many reasons North American SVOD revenues are expected to dip below 50% of the global total for the first time, but the biggest is the saturation in the streaming market domestically. Another recent survey found that net streaming subscriptions in the United States have remained essentially flat since 2020, and these days a customer is more likely to sign up for a service to watch one show and cancel their service after than to juggle several streamers at once.
The Asian Pacific market holds two of the largest streaming audiences in the world in China and India, so Ampere’s prediction that Western Europe will overtake the region is impressive indeed. Ampere cites a loss of subscribers for the Chinese streamer Tencent as one issue, but there are certainly other factors at play. Disney+ has been losing millions of customers in India because it no longer carries Indian Premier League cricket, though it remains the top streamer in the country for now. Ampere’s data reinforces a report from 2022 that showed Europe outpacing the rest of the world in streaming viewership.
The data from Ampere shows why so many streamers are heavily focused on expanding internationally. As in most cases, Netflix is leading the way, as the world’s largest streamer produces content in countries like South Korea, the United Kingdom, Spain, and dozens of other global territories. Paramount+ expanded into several European countries in late 2022, and Warner Bros. Discovery recently announced it will begin offering a CNN livestream on Max internationally sometime this year.
Prime Video is planning to turn its new series “Citadel” into an international franchise, so its clear that streamers are responding to the growth being seen outside the North American continent. One recent study predicted that by 2028, global SVOD subscriptions will have risen by 400 million. The American streaming market may be fully mature, but there are customers to be had worldwide, and streamers will continue to expand their international content to lure those users in.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.