The entry of new subscription streaming alternatives appears to be eroding the dominance of the top SVOD gorilla, Netflix, according to the latest research released by streaming services and analysis company Reelgood.
Reelgood’s platform acts as a recommendation hub for a wide swath of subscription streaming sites, directing 2 million active users monthly to the various platforms . And in the third quarter, Reelgood initiated 22% fewer streams for Netflix than it did in Q2.
According to San Francisco startup, Netflix accounted for 32% of its initiated streams in the second quarter, but only 25% in Q3.
Hulu also saw a decline in its dominance, dropping from a 19% of Reelgood-directed streams in Q2 to 15% in Q3. (Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus remained largely flat from Q2 - Q3.)
So where did Netflix and Hulu’s lost market share go?
Well, HBO Max—which had its first full quarter in the market in Q3—saw its share of streams double from 3% to 6%.
And while Reelgood’s latest report and associated graphic (see below) don’t include data for Comcast/NBCUniversal’s Peacock, a Reelgood rep said that new platform’s emergence was certainly a factor.
Reelgood’s latest report also further supported the narrative that ad-supported, free streaming services are cutting into SVOD. The latter’s market share was down from 52.3% in Q2 to 47.5% of streams in Q3, while AVOD’s share spiked from 25% to 30.8%.
Notably, TV Everywhere streams declined from 11.7% in Q2 to 8.4% in Q3.
