The Swedish TV and streaming market remains stable and growth in the number of subscribing households is declining. However, households that already subscribe to an SVOD service continue to pick up additional subscriptions, which has resulted in 350 000 new subscriptions on the Swedish market. Looking at specific services, Disney Plus stands out, as half of all added subscriptions is contributed to this actor. This is concluded in Mediavision’s analysis of the Swedish streaming market in Q3 2021.

Over the past 12 months (ending Q3 2021), 350 000 new SVOD subscriptions have been added to the Swedish streaming market. Meanwhile, the number of subscribing households remain unchanged, at a level that has stayed stable throughout the pandemic. This is concluded in Mediavision’s third quarter analysis of the Swedish TV and streaming market. The analysis shows that subscription growth stems almost exclusively from already existing customers, i.e., households that subscribe to additional services, referred to as “stacking”.
A service that clearly stands out is Disney Plus, that launched in Sweden a little over a year ago. In this first year on the market, new Disney Plus subscriptions make up more than half of net growth.

– These findings demonstrate that there is a strong demand for new and attractive services, despite household penetration remaining stable. It is still possible to successfully establish a new brand on the Swedish streaming market. However, Mediavision’s analysis points to these services currently creating growth in “stacking”, rather than penetration, comments Marie Nilsson, CEO of Mediavision.

– A contributing factor to the success could be that new services often launch at a highly competitive price. Concurrently, households have simply added these services to their supply without terminating an existing subscription. Recently, we have seen this pricing strategy also being applied at the launch of HBO Max. There is reason to believe that aggressive price strategies will push stacking in the streaming households even further, continues Marie Nilsson.

As of today, Netflix is the most popular service in Swedish households, followed by Viaplay and Disney Plus. Netflix dominates in households that only subscribe to one service, but combinations of Netflix, Viaplay and Disney Plus are the most common in households with more subscriptions.