Netflix’s reign as the largest subscription-based over-the-top (OTT) streaming video on-demand (SVOD) service continues (no surprise there), but there was movement in Parks Associates’ ranking of the top 10 OTT subscription services during 3Q, according to a company update.
CBS All Access joined the ranks of the top 10 OTT SVOD subscription service providers on Parks’ market leader board in 3Q. Sling TV ascended to number 6 and Showtime moved up a notch to nine. A niche provider of anime videos, Crunchyroll ranked eighth, according to Parks’ OTT Video Market Tracker.
Sports networks continue to show well also. MLB.TV ranked fourth on Parks’ leader board, while WWE Network followed at number 5.
T-Mobile subscribers received a free MLB.TV subscription at the beginning of the baseball season, Parks notes. According to the latest market data, WWE reported that its subscriber base totaled 1.5 million as of end-3Q, up from 1.2 million a year ago.
Top 10 OTT Subscription Services Trends
More broadly, all of the top 10 OTT subscription services saw their subscriber numbers rise over the course of the third quarter. “The top five OTT services have stayed consistent, primarily through maintaining or growing the massive user and subscriber bases that they have built over the past several years,” Parks’ Senior Director of Research Brett Sappington was quoted in a company news release.
“Showtime and CBS All Access have made a significant push into the OTT space. Their recognized brands and popular content, including Showtime’s Homeland and Ray Donovan, have provided them with a good basis for building an OTT service,¨ he added.
¨Sling TV has continued to evolve its offering, testing new options and adding several new channels in order to grow its customer base.”
Success in development of original programming is contributing to OTT subscription SVOD growth. Collectively, providers’ original TV programs garnered more than 200 Emmy nominations and won more than 40 this year.
The effects of growing OTT subscription SVOD services use is evident in device usage as well. Viewing via computer outranked the TV among OTT service subscribers in 2014, but, now connected to the Internet, the TV set has made a comeback, according to Parks.
“We are clearly seeing OTT video moving to the television,” Sappington said. “OTT users watch OTT services on their TV screens between 17-20 days per month, much more than platforms such as a PC, smartphone, or tablet.”
Other highlights from Parks’ latest OTT Video Market Tracker report include:
- 63% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to an OTT video service as of the third quarter of 2016, up from 57% at the beginning of 2015.
- Overall OTT video service adoption is approximately 15% higher among Latino and Hispanic U.S. broadband households when compared to all U.S. broadband households. One-half of Latino or Hispanic U.S. broadband households are service stackers and subscribe to two or more paid OTT video services. Latino or Hispanic American broadband households also have the highest adoption of sports services (29%) and Netflix (64%) when compared to the national average.
- Most major OTT video services receive a positive NPS (Net Promoter Score). For example, Netflix’s NPS in 1Q 2016 was 38. By comparison, the overall NPS for U.S. pay TV among its customers is -38.
