Streaming overtakes pay TV Breaking the mould

MORE people are now watching streaming services such as Netflix than traditional pay TV firms for the first time.

A report from industry regulator Ofcom found the three biggest TV streaming firms – Netflix, Amazon Prime and Sky’s Now TV – had a combined 15.4million UK subscribers in the first three months of this year.

That was more than the 15.1m with more traditional pay TV, including the bulk of Sky, plus Virgin Media, BT TV and TalkTalk.

Netflix – home of hit show Breaking Bad – has 130m subscribers worldwide, although its share price has fallen sharply this week after its growth missed targets.

While beaten by subscriber numbers, pay TV still generates much more in sales than their streaming rivals – £6.4billion versus £895m.

The shift is one of the big changes highlighted in Ofcom’s Media Nations report. It shows the average person spends just over five hours a day watching TV of all kinds.

Two-thirds of that was live telly or shows up to seven days old via catch-up services. The rest was via the likes of Netflix and internet giant YouTube.

The opposite is true for younger people, with the average 16- 34-yearolds watching more than half of what they get via these newer avenues, often on their smartphone.

The report also found that spending on programmes by free-to-air broadcasters, including the BBC and ITV, had fallen to a 20-year low. However, it said some of that had been offset by co-productions part-funded by other firms.

Sharon White, Ofcom’s Chief Executive, said: “Today’s research finds that what we watch and how we watch it are changing rapidly, which has profound implications for UK television.”

Sky said most of its TV subscribers also had Netflix and Amazon Prime as well.