OTT video content has continued its rise throughout Europe, according to new international data from Parks Associates.
‘OTT Video Market Tracker’ is an annual service designed to provide industry monitoring and insights into new trends and services, tracking content and subscriber counts across the US and Europe.
The research found that 55 per cent of broadband households in the UK and 51 per cent in France now view TV programming and films online.
However, Europe remains some distance behind adoption rates in the US, which total 70 per cent.
The number of paid subscriptions in Europe is also significantly lower than that in North America, with 30 per cent of broadband households in the UK and 17 per cent in France holding subscriptions to OTT content, in comparison with 64 per cent in the US.
“OTT is definitely gaining traction across Europe. We are seeing new OTT video services spring up, but not as many as in North America,” said Brett Sappington, director of research, Parks Associates.
“In many parts of Europe, pay-TV penetration is lower than the US, and European consumers have been reluctant to pay for video in the past due to so many ‘free’ options such as the BBC iPlayer.
“But, as more pay options enter the market, with content unavailable anywhere else, they are slowly changing the culture of video viewing in Europe.”
Spotify recently added video to its OTT music service, whilst PlayStation Vue also became available nationwide across the US this month.
“Consumers are trying and subscribing to more services,” Sappington added. “We saw a big increase in the number of households subscribing to multiple OTT video services in the US market at the end of 2015.”
“Each service is bringing new experiences for consumers, and many are providing new content that is unavailable elsewhere.”
