High price of Netflix does nothing to dampen Danish SVoD growth
In 2018 Denmark will become the second country in Western Europe in which SVoD subscriptions overtook pay TV subscriptions. The UK hit the milestone a few months earlier. This growth in SVoD has been driven by the steep uptake of Netflix, which currently makes up almost 50% of all SVoD subscriptions in Denmark. This is despite Denmark having the highest fees for Netflix of any country in the world (the standard package currently costs around $15 per month). Growth of local providers, particularly Viaplay and TV2, has also made a significant contribution to the number of SVoD subscriptions in Denmark.
Denmark’s leading pay TV provider YouSee has suffered particularly badly in recent years, with its number of subscribers decreasing 14% between 2016 and 2018. Stofa, Boxer and Viasat have also seen consistent decline in recent years. SVoD does not seem to be replacing pay TV completely. There is minimal difference in SVoD adoption among those who do and don’t take pay TV services in the country (both groups have around 70% SVoD uptake), with this having virtually no change in our four latest consumer survey waves. This may suggest SVoD is having minimal impact on the existing pay TV landscape, with these services seen by many as a supplement to pay TV rather than a replacement.
Beyond the overlap, pay TV and SVoD subscribers are somewhat distinct groups, with pay TV customers heavily skewing to older and slightly wealthier households, while SVoD users skew the other way towards considerably younger audiences. This second group accounts for most of the growth in SVoD subscriptions over the past year, though there was significant growth in SVoD subscriptions within the older demographic during 2016 and 2017, suggesting potential for continued growth in this area.
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