The UK online video arena has to date been dominated by Google and the BBC with their YouTube and iPlayer propositions, but subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) leader Netflix is rapidly catching up, says eMarketer.

The research firm has revealed new analysis from RBC Capital Markets showing that in August 2016, 62% of UK Internet users who had used a video-on-demand (VOD) service to watch movies or TV shows over the last year had accessed the BBC iPlayer, with YouTube eight percentage points behind. Yet these free services are rapidly being challenged by Netflix on 42%, which has grown from 30% in August 2015 and 14% in August 2013.

Trailing the SVOD leader by some margin is Amazon Prime on 26%, though this is more than double its share of a year ago. Sky GO, and sister product NOW TV, are on 21% and 16% respectively.

eMarketer speculates that the RBC Capital Markets survey may indicate that the BBC's decision to use its registered account holders' viewing data to drive content commissioning decisions may have negatively impacted its VOD rankings.