Today, more than 90 percent of households in Sweden pay for some form of media subscription. Despite rising interest rates, inflation and increased financial strain, there appear to be no signs of saturation in paid media. Quite the opposite, according to Mediavision’s latest analysis there is a new record level for the households’ total media expenditure. Households pay the most for TV and streaming subscriptions.

In the first quarter of 2023, a household in Sweden paid an average of SEK 807 per month for media services. Seen over a year, this means that households spend close to SEK 10,000 on media. The sum includes both subscriptions and individually purchased media. In other words, everything from Netflix subscriptions to audiobooks, Spotify, cinema tickets, gaming and newspapers are included – both paper and digital. Over the past year, Mediavision notes an increase in household media spend of 5 percent. The increasing strain on the household economy thus does not seem to have affected the willingness to pay.

Viewed across the various types of media, TV and video streaming are by far the biggest categories. This is partly explained by the fact that Swedish households have acquired more services. More than half of the average household’s media budget goes to TV and video streaming, after a growth of 9 percent in the last 12 months. However, payment for audiobooks and podcasts has also grown.

As far as newspapers and magazines are concerned, a continued but slow redistribution towards digital services is noted. Biggest spend in this category is made on subscriptions to daily newspapers. And the digital share of daily press has increased from 35 to 40 percent in the past year. Overall, however, digital daily press accounts for less than 5 percent of total media spending.

– Despite these challenging times, we can see that households in Sweden stay loyal to their media purchases, comments Marie Nilsson, CEO at Mediavision. And not only that, but the analysis also shows that households today pay for more media subscriptions than ever before. Just as we have noted during other economic downturns, media plays a very important role in our everyday lives. Maybe even to the extent that media services become extra important when other things have to be cut back.