Parks Associates: top US SVOD services hold steady

Netflix, Amazon and Hulu continue to hold places one, two and three in the US SVOD market by subscriber numbers, while HBO made “a significant move” into the top five.

This is according to new Parks Associates research that placed baseball service MLB.TV at number four, HBO Now at five, Starz at six, and YouTube Red, which entered the list in the past year, at number seven.

The rest of the top 10 was made up, in order, by Showtime, CBS All Access and Sling TV, which maintained strong growth from 2016.

Over-the-top wrestling service WWE was the second most popular subscription OTT sports service after MLB.TV and ranked “just outside of the top 10”.

Brett Sappington

“While the top three are no surprise, the big story over the past year has been the rapid subscriber growth for OTT video services from HBO, Showtime, and Starz,” said Brett Sappington, senior director of research at Parks Associates.

“The combination of recognised brands and popular original content is driving demand for their offerings. Services such as Sling TV and Crunchyroll are still enjoying strong growth, but other services have simply grown at a faster rate over the past year.”

“While more online pay TV services could enter the top 10 within the next year, those services that comprise the top 10 are recognised brands that are aggressively working to expand their subscriber bases. Displacing them will be a difficult task.”