SVOD accounted for majority of pay video growth in 2016

Subscription video-on-demand services in Europe accounted for 60% of the growth in pay video services in 2016, but SVOD still accounted for only 7% of pay services revenues in the same period, according to research by the European Audiovisual Observatory.

According to the Observatory’s latest Key Trends publication, pay TV revenues increased by 2.8% in Europe in 2016, the lowest growth rate since 2012. IPTV outperformed cable, digital-terrestrial and satellite TV, delivering 8.8% growth. Satellite TV homes fell by 0.2% during the same period, while cable and DTT recorded small increases.

The number of pay TV subscribers meanwhile increased by 2.1% in Europe in 2016, down from 3.2% in 2015 and 2.8% in 2014. Numbers decreased in Ireland, Lithuania, Malta and Sweden.

The share of the pay TV market controlled by cable was 42$ in 2016, down from 50% in 2011.

SVOD subscribers meanwhile grew by 54.2% in 2016.

The report found that pay services overall grew by 4.3% in 2016, in line with the overall growth of the market since 2011.

TV advertising grew by 1.5% in 2016, slightly lower than its average growth rate of 1.7% since 2011, according to the research, while public funding for public broadcasters decreased by 0.6% in 2016 and increased by an average of only 0.7% between 2011-16.

The transactional video-on-demand market meanwhile has failed to compensate for a decline in the physical video market. Both combined declined by 6.3% a year between 2011-16, according to the Audiovisual Observatory.