The Nordic SVOD (subscription video-on-demand) market is growing rapidly and 45% of the Nordic households now have at least one SVOD service. According to purchase plans, the SVOD market is still far from saturated. Within a year, half of all Nordic households is expected to have at least one paid streaming service.

The Nordic countries are all quickly adapting to the new digital media market and television is no exception. Interest in paid streaming services, SVOD, is high and still far from saturated. Mediavision estimates that 5 million households in the region now subscribe to at least one SVOD service. This means that another 700,000 net subscribers have been added in the past 12 months (Q1 2017- Q1 2018). And the appetite for premium online video only seem to increase further. According to consumers, growth will continue also towards 2019.

As in many other areas, Netflix dominance in SVOD is significant with close to 3.5 million subscribing households. But despite its strong position, Netflix’ market share has been pushed down from almost 50% in spring 2016 to 40% today. Instead, local SVOD services such as Viaplay and C More, are gaining shares.

– The Nordic consumer appetite for SVOD is still growing. What we see is also that the local services are gaining both in subscribers and shares. This is of course good news for the Nordic media industry. One reason, Mediavision believes, is that households now sign up for several SVOD services. So even if Netflix is still number one, there is obviously room for others. Mediavision currently see signs of an increased local interest, not only in SVOD but also in advertising funded services (AVOD). Our take on this is that the big investments made by Nordic services, in content and technology, have paid off. But we are also foreseeing that competition will ramp up even further, as several “new” global media players are entering the Nordics. For all SVOD services, local and global, this means a tough fight over customers and market shares. For r the consumers, freedom of choice will be even greater says Marie Nilsson, CEO Mediavision.