News & Views

Barb releases Establishment Survey data for Q4 2021

17 February 2022

Barb, the UK’s television audience measurement currency, has released data from its Establishment Survey for Q4 2021. The Establishment Survey enables Barb to understand the characteristics of UK households, part of ensuring that its daily reporting of television audiences is representative of the whole population.

One of the most-discussed metrics that the Establishment Survey reports is the number of UK households with access to a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service. In Q4 2021, this figure rose above 19 million for the first time to reach 19.1 million homes (66.9% of households), up from 18.7 million homes (65.8%) in Q3 2021.

Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Now TV all saw small quarterly gains, with Disney+ showing the largest increase in the number of homes with access to its service, up almost 5% on Q3 2021. 5.5 million homes had access to Disney+ in Q4 2021, up from 5.2 million in Q3.

16.8 million homes had access to Netflix in Q4 2021, an increase from 16.7 million the previous quarter, while 12.6 million homes had access to Amazon Prime Video, a growth from 12.5 million in Q3 2021. 2.1 million homes had Now TV, up from 2.0 million the previous quarter.

With the overall growth lower than the aggregate growth for individual services, it’s clear that some homes have multiple SVOD subscriptions. The number of homes that subscribe to two or more SVOD services rose to 12.4 million homes (43.3%) in Q4 2021, up from 12.3 million homes (43.1%) in Q3.

Justin Sampson, Barb’s Chief Executive said: “We have been providing valuable insight into SVOD services since 2014, when we began reporting on the uptake of these services in our Establishment Survey.

Last November, we took a big step forward when we upgraded our daily audience reporting to include SVOD and video-streaming services. As well as reporting the total time spent watching these services, we deliver audience ratings for programmes on Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Netflix. This is the first time audiences for streaming services are being reported with all the hallmarks of a joint-industry measurement system: independence, objectivity and transparency.”