According to Kantar, one-third (more than half a million) of cancellations were motivated by “money saving” as the main factor – this represents a jump from 28% in the previous quarter. 38% of planned cancellation for Q2 2022 are also being driven by “wanting to save money”.

Among GenZ viewers, the streaming service penetration rate fell for the first time ever from 75.8% in Q1 2021 to 74.6% in the first quarter of this year. Additionally, only 3% of households in Great Britain subscribed to a new streaming service in the first quarter of this year, falling from 4.2% a year ago.

Overall, 16.9 million UK households (58%) are subscribed to at least one SVOD service, down -21.5k quarter-one-quarter. The company says these figures “indicate inflation is top of consumers’ minds” and some households have chosen to “deprioritise entertainment”.

Kantar also reported that – in times of financial uncertainty – SVOD services Netflix and Amazon Prime Video were seen as the most indispensable in the UK, ranking as the last services subscribers would cancel when prioritising their spending. In contrast, Disney+, NOW, Discovery+ and Britbox all experienced significant rises in churn rates, quarter-on-quarter.

Kantar said: “With many streaming services having witnessed significant revenue growth during the height of Covid, this moment will be sobering. The evidence from these findings suggests that British households are now proactively looking for ways to save, and the SVoD market is already seeing the effects of this.

As a result, it’s now more critical than ever that SVoD providers demonstrate to consumers how their services are indispensable in the home in what has become a heavily competitive market. New marketing and content acquisition strategies will likely need to be deployed to support this and avoid further churn.”

Other leagues Viaplay has secured exclusive UK broadcast rights to include: Champions Hockey League (2023/2024 to 2027/2028), EHF European Handball Championship, EHF Champions League and EHF European League (2022 to 2030), CEV EuroVolley, CEV Champions League, CEV EuroBeachVolley and additional CEV volleyball competitions (2022 to 2026), and World Athletics Continental Tour Gold (2023 to 2029).

The streaming service currently streams sports in 11 European markets and aims to have 12 million subscribers by the end of 2025. It has said it will reveal further details of its UK content offering, pricing and launch date in the near future.

Anders Jensen, NENT Group President and CEO, said: “We have high ambitions for Viaplay in every country where we have a broad offering. The UK, with this expanded scope, is no exception. Adding sports alongside our premium Nordic content will be a unique proposition for viewers, and our line-up will continue to grow and evolve.

“This will increase Viaplay’s appeal even further and help us rapidly establish a position in one of the world’s most competitive and exciting streaming markets. Our increased ambition for the UK is of course positive for our outlook but we are not changing our guidance at this time, and we remain fully funded for Viaplay’s expansion to at least 16 markets by the end of 2023.”

Peter Nørrelund, NENT Group Chief Sports Officer, said: “These long-term rights show Viaplay’s commitment to streaming sports in the UK. Each has a dedicated audience and will give us a foundation to expand further over time. In our current European markets, live sports are our home turf and we look forward to bringing our expert coverage to fans in the UK.”

Virginie Dremeaux, Vice President of Marketing and Communications International of FreeWheel commented, “The research findings reinforce the continued positive trend toward advanced TV identified in FreeWheel and CoLab’s 2020 survey, with a third of TV ad budgets reportedly being assigned to advanced TV channels in 2021 compared to a fifth last year”.

Breaking down advanced TV advertising spend into VOD, CTV and OTT spend, the study reveals that UK advertisers expect an increase across the board over the next year, by +15.1%, +8.8% and +14% respectively, while agencies forecast an increase of +5.2%, +9.5% and +6.2%.

While both UK advertisers and agencies foresee dedicating more budget to advanced TV, they rank the key drivers behind the spend growth slightly differently. 53% of agency respondents chose linear TV reach extension as a main factor, and 50% ranked ad effectiveness. Advertisers focused on advanced TV’s targeting capabilities across audiences (66%) and platforms (56%).

Across all UK marketers, the ability to measure ROI remained of signal importance – with 42% of those surveyed affirming it as a major factor in securing buy-ins, and 39% ranked the ability to gather data to optimise campaign performance in-flight, as highly important. Agencies and advertisers differ slightly in the weights they assign to the drivers that will unlock further budget, with agencies (47%) more concerned with access to deterministic exposure data as a basis for measurement, and advertisers prioritising data integrations (41%) and trusted third-party certification (37%).

Despite these minor differences, Virginie Dremeaux highlights the shared conviction among UK marketers, about the indispensability of advanced TV for advertising: “Critically, there’s increased recognition from both groups of advanced TV’s potential to reach highly engaged audiences in premium video environments through effective ad campaigns. With greater education and experience, I’m confident advertisers and agencies can continue to achieve the return on investment they need from these channels.”

Methodology: The study was conducted between 23 July and 2 August 2021 in key European markets:  Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the UK, in collaboration with independent research company CoLab Media. In the UK, the survey was completed by 102 marketing decision makers or influencers – 40% of respondents comprised advertisers and 29% agencies, with the remainder being media owners or others. A variety of agencies took part in the survey, from small independents to larger conglomerates: 27% of the agencies surveyed in the UK had over 500 employees.