When summarizing the second quarter of the year, no decrease in the Swedes appetite for video streaming services is to be seen. Yet again a new record is noted as half of the Swedish households now subscribe to at least one streaming service. A likely culprit in this development is the sport events taking place during the summer, which now is consumed online at an increasing rate.

In Mediavision’s analysis of the second quarter of 2018 streaming services, commonly referred to as SVOD, display a very strong growth. Streaming services grew by a whopping 25 percent compared to Q2 2017. Now half of the Swedish households subscribe to at least one streaming service. Furthermore, the usage of ad-based (AVOD) and public service funded streaming services also continue to increase at a rapid rate. Today nearly half (45 percent) of 15-74 year-olds in Sweden use some kind of streaming service on an average day. Mediavision also concludes a significant increase in online sports viewership during Q2. Number of viewers and time spent watching both increase rapidly. Live sport broadcasts have historically had a very strong position in traditional TV. However, now it would seem the strong consumer trend in streaming also includes sports.

It has been mentioned earlier that traditional TV viewership has continuously decreased during Q2, despite large sport events such as the hockey and football world cup. At present, the decrease in viewership is at minus 6 percent compared to the same period last year, and the downward facing trend will most likely continue.

Global companies eg Netflix and Youtube are not the only winners. Even though these two continue attaining more than half of all online viewing, local services are growing significantly. When it comes to paid streaming services (SVOD), local actors show a growth of 40 percent compared to the second quarter last year. This is significantly faster than the market’s aggregated growth of 25 percent during the same period. It is also evident that local sports services eg Cmore and Viaplay have been a contributing factor to this.

– Mediavision’s analysis of the second quarter shows a strengthening market for streaming, with local actors gaining ground. The interest in sports viewing online increases, which is one of many signs of a growing digital maturity among consumers. For the actors on the market this means that repositioning into online will most likely need to happen even quicker. For local actors it is becoming increasingly important to position themselves in a long-term and sustainable way, to be able to compete with the global giants, Marie Nilsson says, CEO at Mediavision.