Swedish standalone SVOD revenues hit new high
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Editor
| 30 January 2022
A study from leading Nordic analyst Mediavision has revealed record subscription video-on-demand revenues in the Swedish video market in 2021, driven primarily from stacking households signing up to additional services, rather than new households entering the market.
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Revenues from standalone SVOD (S-SVOD) subscriptions amounted to approximately 5 billion SEK for the full year of 2021. Since 2017, the Swedish S-SVOD market has grown at an annual rate (CAGR) of +10 percent. Initially, growth was predominantly driven by more and more households subscribing to an S-SVOD service. However, growth as measured in number of new households has diminished over the last two years.

In 2021, approximately three-fifths of Swedish households subscribed to an S-SVOD service, similar to that in 2020. This figure is also said to be in line with the number of households subscribing to a digital pay-TV service, although penetration for pay TV has remained stable for a longer period of time.

On average, a Swedish household currently subscribes to 2.1 standalone SVOD services . However, the analyst noted that a price war has started as new S-SVOD services have entered the market at a significantly lower price point compared to market average. Consequently said the company, growth in stacking has brought upon a lower average expense per subscription, amounting to 118 SEK per month in 202, down 3% year-on-year.

“The standalone SVOD market continues to show healthy growth, even during 2021 that was characterised by maturity,” commented Natalia Borelius, senior analyst at Mediavision. “The primary driver of growth is stacking, i.e. additional subscriptions rather than new households – existing households are simply paying more for their supply of services. Nevertheless, the price war (ignited by e.g., Disney and HBO) has pushed down average expense per subscription – despite several other, big services imposing price hikes. Going into 2022, we expect an eventful year as price and packaging strategies increase in importance on a maturing Swedish market.”