Liverpool and Manchester top the UK Netflix league
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Faye Sutton
| 02 December 2020
The North West of England is a powerhouse when it comes to streaming, as Liverpool and Manchester have been named the UK’s Netflix capitals.
Netflix English Multiple Device 17July2020

According to research from Zen Internet, 56% of households in the two cities have a subscription with the streaming giant, with London in third place with 54%. Surveying over 2,000 consumers, Zen found that Netflix leads the streaming wars, with 50% of UK households now signed up the service. This compares with 38% who pay for Amazon Prime Video. Households with the packages are watching nearly nine hours a week of Netflix but under six hours of Amazon’s service.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh was the city with the highest Amazon Prime presence in the UK, with 47% of households subscribed.

At the other end of the spectrum, households in the South West are the least likely to use streaming services, with 35% in Bristol subscribed to Netflix and 17% not having a TV or streaming service at all.

People in Plymouth are becoming more savvy when it comes to their own TV needs, with households in this area the most likely to be considering unbundling from broadband plus TV packages due to lack of value (12%), ahead of those in Liverpool (10%) and Newcastle (10%). Londoners are the most sceptical of broadband and TV bundles – with the capital home to the most households (12%) that have already unbundled. One in 10 (9%) households in Newcastle and Norwich have done the same.

The research also uncovered an incoming subscription boom that is set to hit East Anglia, with one in five (18%) households in Norwich due to increase their streaming subscriptions. With a similar trend in Liverpool (10%), households in the UK regions will want to make sure their TV streaming time is underpinned by strong, reliable connectivity.

Zen founder and chairman Richard Tang said: “Across the UK, we’ve seen a real change in the way people are watching and discovering new TV shows and films. This was already evident even before the pandemic struck and has been massively accelerated by it. Now, as social restrictions are set to continue through the winter months and people are reliant on accessing entertainment at home, it has never been more important to provide every household with a reliable and speedy broadband connection – from people living in the big city centres to those in rural locations.

“Customers should avoid getting tied down to their internet provider through costly broadband and TV bundles that don’t offer value, and know that if the service isn’t up to scratch then switching is easier than they might think.”