Disney+ is predicted to become the world’s most popular subscription based video on demand service by 2025, according to a new report by Digital TV Research, which also predicts that China and the U.S. will make up almost half of the predicted 1.64 billion subscriptions of the increasingly popular OTT services by 2026.
Global SVOD subscriptions will increase by 491 million between 2021 and 2026, the report says and that China and the US will together account for 49% of the global total by 2026, down from 56% in 2021.
Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “China and the US had a similar number of subscriptions by end-2020. Due to government pressure, China’s growth is decelerating, with 354 million subscriptions expected by 2026. The US will continue to grow, with 450 million subscriptions expected by 2026.
Disney+ will add 140 million subscribers between 2021 and 2026 to bring its total to 284 million and is expected to overtake Netflix as the largest SVOD service by subscriptions by 2026. About 121 million of Disney+’ subscribers (43% of its total) in 2026 will be in the 13 Asian countries under the Hotstar brand. Netflix will add 53 million subscribers to reach 271 million subscribers by 2026.
In the U.S., gross SVOD subscriptions [for movies, linear channels and TV episodes - excluding other platforms such as sports] will increase by 33% from 338 million at the end of 2021 to 450 million in 2026. About 87% of TV households (106 million) will subscribe to at least one SVOD platform by 2026, compared to 82% of TV households (99 million) subscribing to at least one SVOD platform by end-2021. The average SVOD household will subscribe to 4.26 SVOD platforms by 2026, compared to 3.42 SVOD platforms at the end of 2021.
