OTT video penetration hits 55% in UK, 51% in France

OTT video usage is continuing to rise in Western Europe but has yet to reach the same level as in the US, according to Parks Associates. The market researcher found that 55 percent of UK broadband homes and 51 percent in France are watching TV shows and films online, compared to 70 percent in the US. The number of paid subscriptions in Europe is significantly lower than in the US. In the UK and France, 30 percent and 17 percent of broadband homes subscribe to OTT video, versus 64 percent of US broadband households. 

Parks director of research Brett Sappington writes, “In many parts of Europe, pay-TV penetration is lower than the U.S., 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."

The UK is one of the top European markets for OTT video services, fuelled by iPlayer, Netflix, Sky and Amazon. New OTT services are emerging in France, including Fnac’s transactional video service, but Netflix has struggled despite deals with many of France’s biggest pay TV providers. Parks cites new OTT services from AT&T, Sony and HTC, as well as nationwide availability of PlayStation Vue as driving the increase in online viewing in the US, with “a big increase in the number of households subscribing to multiple OTT video services in the US market at the end of 2015.”