UK Europe’s largest TV, VOD market
Details
Joseph O'Halloran
| 11 October 2019

Even given the uncertainly that the country has endured since the vote to leave the EU in June 2016, the UK is still the largest market in Europe for television and on-demand video services according to a report to the European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO).

The report found that at the end of 2018, there were 11,123 TV channels available in Europe and of these 5, 039 were local TV. Further, there were 2,917 on-demand services available in Europe, including services established outside of Europe which target the European markets. The latter comprise 1,624 catch-up TV services, 1,081 pay-on-demand services and 212 free on-demand services.

A fifth of television services established in the Europe by 2018 were accessible via digital terrestrial television (20%), and the rest could be accessed via cable, satellite, IPTV. Most television channels were pay/or premium services while 41% established in Europe were available free-to-air. The results were similar for the EU28. The dominant business model for pay-on-demand services was subscription video-on- demand (SVOD) (59%), which came before transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) (41%).

The study also found that were 5, 880 TV channels established in all of Europe (excluding local channels) at the end of 2018. Of these 4,470 were based in the EU28. Of the TV channels established in Europe, 8% were publicly owned while 91% belonged to a private company and 1% had a mixed ownership.

These were similar figures for the EU28. Around 28% of TV channels were available in HD format and the same percentage had a catch-up TV service on offer. Approximately 4% of TV channels had a time-shifted version, identical figures for the EU28. At the end of 2018, there were 4,838 TV broadcasting licences in Europe* (excluding local licences). Of these 3,555 were issued in the EU28.

The EAO research found that the United Kingdom was by and large the most prominent audiovisual market in wider Europe with 1,230 TV channels and 201 pay on-demand services services established in the country, many of which were targeting other European audiovisual markets. As with television, the United Kingdom was in 2018 by far the major hub for pay-on-demand services targeting foreign markets with a total of 130 services aimed at other European markets. Of these 99 were serving the EU28 alone.