SVOD to account for ‘just 3% of pay TV market’

Subscription video-on-demand services popularised by the likes of Netflix and Amazon will account for just 3% of the global pay TV market this year, according to Deloitte.

Predicting the top media trends for 2015, the professional services firm said that it expects SVOD to generate roughly £5 billion (US$7.6 billion) globally this year, compared to total pay TV market proceeds of £168 billion.

“SVOD should not be considered solely as a competitor to pay TV but more as a complementary service and replacement for DVD box sets,” said Deloitte.

“In addition, SVOD players will struggle to match TV broadcasters’ investment in brand new high-end content.”

Reinforcing traditional viewing habits, Deloitte also said it does not expect short form video to overtake traditional, long form television viewing.

Though it predicted that short clips will generate 10 billion hours of viewing per month and revenues of £3 billion, this compares to an estimated 360 billion hours of traditional TV viewing per month in 2015 and subscription revenues worth more than £260 billion.

“The most successful video bloggers will generate billions of views. However, the total time spent watching short online video clips, will represent under three per cent of all video – long- and short-form –watched on screens globally,” said Neil Allcock, lead media partner at Deloitte.