The growth of paid video streaming services (SVOD) has characterized the Nordic video market for several years, 2019 being no exception. Although local actors have grown substantially on all Nordic markets, Netflix continues to hold a unique position. More than 4 million Nordic households now subscribe to Netflix. Half of the Nordic households are now subscribing to a paid streaming service (SVOD). This represents an overall growth of approx. 15% compared to the fall of last year. The market is still dominated by Netflix, which has continuously added subscribers since the Nordic launch in 2012. Today, nearly 70% of the approx. 6 million Nordic SVOD subscribing households hold a Netflix account – resulting in a subscriber base of more than 4 million households. Netflix´s annual growth is on par with the total SVOD market growth in 2019. However, several other services have attained a larger annual growth than the market leader. Local and regional actors such as Viaplay (Nordics), TV2 Play (Denmark), TV2 Sumo (Norway) and Ruutu+ (Finland) all added subscribers at a higher rate than the Nordic market average. Given that the majority of Nordic households (70%) already subscribe to Netflix, the local services are generally stacked. This means that they are added on top of an already existing subscription – which in most cases is Netflix. Looking towards 2020, new global services are expected to enter the Nordic market. Competition on the SVOD market is vastly different today than upon the Nordic launch of Netflix back in 2012. The market leader’s position has solidified as the “basic” offering for SVOD, while other services act as supplements (often providing sports or local content). The question remains – which of these service types will Disney+ and the likes affect the most? Follow us into an eventful 2020 to find out!  

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