Online TV shows signs of peak subscription
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Editor
| 24 April 2022
The latest flagship report on trends in the entertainment market from analyst GWI has found that even though online video services are still being boosted from the Covid bounce, they will have to work even harder to captivate not only existing audiences, but also win new subscribers.
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Using its Software-as-a-Service platform, GWI drew upon more than 700,000 interviews of internet users aged 16-64, highlighting the media behaviours that have stuck since the pandemic and investigating what has changed.

One of these changes is that older generations are increasingly online and are participating more in social media, with a quarter of baby boomers using these channels to find content such as articles, shows and videos. The overall increase was 5% since Q4 2020. At the same time, Meanwhile, Gen X viewers’ time spent watching online TV has increased at nearly the same levels as Gen Z since 2015, at an average of 35 mins a day.

However, GWI warned that the findings also suggested a cooling of momentum for some pandemic big winners. It noted that as the market becomes saturated and fierce competition heats up it may be reaching peak subscription. In 2021, GWI calculated the average number of streaming services used by consumers remained static at 2.7, a contrast to the steady rise since Q2 2017. The number of users saying they’ve paid for a films or TV streaming service was also starting to plateau.

On social media, short-form video content led the way across all generations, even growing 5% among baby boomers since Q1 202. But, cautioned GWI, the peak subscription issue may raise questions around TV and movie ads. And while broadcast TV still maintained the greatest share of overall TV viewing, online is catching up and is likely to close the gap completely in the near future. Despite momentum challenges, GWI believes that fundamentally online TV should be a good bet for marketers.
“Staying at home during the pandemic cemented online entertainment as the first call for consumers. This mindset is not going anywhere as our report shows the continuation of a number of trends from last year, particularly the continued increase in older generations turning to digital media,” said GWI chief research officer Jason Mander commenting on the research. “However, we are also starting to see some notable changes as the streaming space becomes even more crowded. With a number of options available, consumers are having to be more discerning with their entertainment spend. This means online services will have to work even harder to captivate not only existing audiences, but also win new subscribers.”