Report: Global Online Video Service Subscriptions Grew 26 Percent in 2020 to 1.1 Billion

The Motion Picture Association today released a report on the theatrical and home/mobile entertainment market.

It highlights the dramatic increase in subscriptions to online video services during 2020, the year of the pandemic.

Some additional data points:

• Global online video service subscriptions broke the one-billion barrier for the first time.
• Worldwide subscriptions totaled 1.1 billion in 2020, a year-to-year increase of 26 percent.
• Subscriptions in the U.S. alone exceeded 308 million, a 32 percent increase from 2019.
• Global revenues for home/mobile entertainment (that is, content released digitally and on disc) grew by 23 percent, to nearly $69 billion.
• A higher portion of surveyed American adults – 55 percent – reported consuming more content online than the 46 percent who indicated they had watched more pay TV.
• Over 85 percent of those between the ages of 2 and 17 reported that they watched full-length TV shows or movies on a mobile device.

The "2020 THEME Report" is available here.

Ericsson ConsumerLab Report Projects Increase in Mobile Video

Today, Ericsson released its 2017 edition of the ConsumerLab TV and Media Report, showing significant growth in the proliferation of mobile video. Here are some of the key findings from the report:

• By 2020, 50% of all TV and video viewing will take place on a mobile screen (tablets, smartphones and laptops), an increase of 85% since 2010.

• In 2017, nearly 60% of viewers prefer on-demand viewing over scheduled linear TV viewing, an increase of around 50% since 2010. By 2020, linear and video on demand viewing will be almost equal.

• The average number of used on-demand services has increased from 1.6 in 2012 to 3.8 services in 2017 per person.

• By 2020, one in three consumers will be Virtual Reality users.

The significant increase in consumer demand for mobile video is the main reason that Cisco projected mobile data to increase fivefold from 2016 to 2021.  This explosion in demand combined with effective wireless competition produces enormous enhancements in consumer welfare.