Apple TV+ gains UK subscribers as Netflix, Disney+ dip
William Gallagher
New figures from the UK's television ratings service says while most other streaming services saw small declines, Apple TV+ had a slight growth in the country.
In June 2022, the UK's Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) put the number of UK homes with access to streaming services at 19.57 million. Now the latest BARB figures show that overall streaming access has declined to 19.08 million homes.
Surveying the change in streaming access between Q4 2022 and Q1 2023, BARB says that only Apple TV+ and UK-only NOW TV avoided a decline.
Apple TV+ added 13% more households, rising from 1.69 million in Q4 2022, to 1.91 million in Q1 2023. NOW rose 8% in the same period to reach 2.03 million.
In comparison, Netflix dropped 1.1% to 16.96 million homes. Some 12.9 million households had access to Amazon Prime in the quarter, which is a drop of 1.7%. Then Disney+ declined 1.9% to 7.14 million homes.
BARB's methodology is not clear — it isn't known, for instance, whether the definition of access to a streaming service means either watching or paying for it. An extended free trial of Apple TV+ access is still given to customers buying devices such as iPhones, for instance.
Similarly, while the listed streamers are presumably the most popular in the UK, there are several others that have not been listed. Those include Paramount+, BritBox, plus the high-profile Sky and new ITVX.
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Andrew Orr
Christine McKee
4 Comments
10% of homes with streaming services have Apple TV+? That surprises me. I have it on a free trial but don't know anyone else who does.
Apple still has a low price for their service unlike everyone else. Doesn't charge more to get a 4K version. May not have a library of content Netflix does, but it is growing and Apple has a lot of great series to watch. I'm enjoying SILO currently. New episode should pop out today, I can't wait! These days I mostly watch YouTube and I pay the $11 a month to not have commercials. I just don't watch Netflix much these days. The last time they jacked up their prices, I dropped the highest 4K service back down to 1080P. I can't even tell the difference. I only keep the service for my Dad who lives with me at my house, retired. He does use the service. He is home most of the time watching TV, otherwise, I may have dropped Netflix by now. I did enjoy the Wednesday series. Binged watched that. I haven't watched anything from Netflix since then.
Limited time to watch TV. Other things to do. There is just way too much content on TV these days. No one can watch it all. I have Amazon Prime also, mainly for Delivery, I rarely watch any Video Streaming from them. They come in last for me. There is a few things I'd like to watch on it, but other shows on the other services rate higher.
What a lot of people forget is that in the UK, you can have 100+ TV channels at zero monthly cost by using FreeSat. A smaller number of channels can be had using FreeView which is broadcast like old-style TV.
All that is needed is a compatible TV (most are FreeView OOTB) or a set-top box that can be had for the price of one month's SKY subscription.
Sure, you don't get all the so-called blockbuster movies and series that are shown on the premium subscription channels but personally, there is more than enough to watch using my PVR.
In periods when money is tight, services like Netflix or Sky will get cut. That is my take on the reduction in subscribers to some services.
To help explain this, BARB’s measurements are unlikely to include a check on paid or trial subscription - they look at the content viewed.