U.S. consumers spent $6.38 billion on subscription streaming in the third quarter, up 16.9% from the same three-month period of 2020, according to the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), which bases its findings on studio data.
Overall, the U.S. home entertainment business grew 9.5% to $796 billion, DEG said, but SVOD spending accounted for all of that expansion. From packaged DVD and Blu-ray sales to electronic-sell-through of digital, all other home entertainment sectors were down from the COVID-stricken 2020, a pre-vaccine period in which U.S. consumers were cocooned at home en masse.
Several key subscription streaming platforms have joined the market since the third quarter of 2020--Discovery Plus and Paramount Plus. And others, such as HBO Max and Apple TV Plus, have grown their audience bases considerably over the past 12 months.
It's these relative newcomers which seem to be driving overall growth. Netflix has grown its domestic subscriber ranks by less than 1 million over the last 12 months
So far in 2021, U.S. spending on subscription streaming services is up 19.5% to nearly $18.6 billion.
