With so many to choose from, it’s only a matter of time before Netflix starts to drop in popularity…
From Deadline:
While it remains the dominant force in streaming, Netflix has seen its market share erode slightly in a trend that is likely to continue, research firm eMarketer predicts.
In a new forecast issued Wednesday, the firm said Netflix’s U.S. viewership is currently 55.3% of the population, or 182.5 million people. The viewership figure is an extrapolation of how many people ultimately avail themselves of the company’s 60.1 million domestic subscriber accounts.
Despite a wobbly second-quarter earnings report, which saw the company disclose its first dip in domestic subscribers in eight years, Netflix will see U.S. viewership rise 7.6% this year over 2018 levels, eMarketer said. Even so, the company’s share of U.S. OTT subscription users will fall to 87% this year from 90% in 2014, dipping further to 86.3% by 2023, as the marketplace becomes more diversified.
The report focuses on established players Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Now and Sling TV, but the marketplace will soon get even more crowded as Disney+, Apple TV+ and HBO Max debut.
The figures from eMarketer, a unit of German media giant Axel Springer, are based on a range of sources and “weighted based on methodology and soundness,” the company said. The sources include “quantitative and qualitative data from research firms, government agencies, media firms and public companies, plus interviews with top executives at publishers, ad buyers and agencies,” researchers noted.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has estimated the company accounts for about 10% of all U.S. TV viewing, leaving it plenty of room to grow domestically. But established players like Hulu and Amazon Prime Video are continuing to offer competition, and the space will be growing more crowded soon. Disney+ launches November 12 and Apple’s offering is expected out in November.
In 2019, eMarketer estimates, Amazon Prime Video will remain No. 2 in subscription streaming, with 96.5 million viewers, a nearly 9% jump from 2018. By 2021, the e-commerce behemoth’s video offering will reach one-third of the U.S. population.
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