Although original programming is now cutting through—a validation of expansion in output—licensed content remains the backbone of Prime Video’s offering, c.80% of all viewing since March 2024.

Viewership of UK originals fluctuates significantly with reliance on standout titles, whereas US content, including high-volume dramas, maintains a steady audience.

Football coverage has been a draw for viewers: the Premier League, now lost, brought in older, male audiences. After an underwhelming initial phase of the last Champions League, Prime Video’s top pick of fixtures proved beneficial in the knockout round.

Revenue growth in mature markets is now price-driven and therefore lumpier. While the US leans on bundling, European scale requires wholesale distribution with pay-TV incumbents. Fledgling streamer to streamer/PSB deals are more of a distribution nudge than a step towards the US model.

Profit momentum is real but fragile: H2 content/sports ramps will test margins; the Versant/Discovery Global carve-outs are about protecting multiples while ring-fencing legacy decline.

Engagement is the key battleground: live sport is increasingly important although streamers remain reticent on rights spending. While sport boosts acquisition and ad reach, ROI hinges on price discipline and shoulder programming. Europe remains a tougher nut to crack.
 

Prime Video UK viewing has increased by 30% year-on-year. Although this growth is from a smaller base than its main rivals, it now matches Disney+ in total engagement.

Viewing behaviour now reflects a service that is more than just an add-on: those who use it alongside Netflix do so for its breadth, particularly in film, whilst non-Netflix viewers are drawn to its major UK hits and football coverage.

Supplementing consistent viewing to football and scripted box sets, its ability to attract mass audiences to its hit original shows now rivals some broadcasters.

Industrial scale theft of video services, especially live sport, is in the ascendance. Combating piracy is a formidable challenge, providing a direct threat to profitability for broadcasters and streamers.

Big tech is both friend and foe in solving the piracy problem. Conflicting incentives harm consumer safety by providing easy discovery of illegal pirated services, and reduced friction through low-cost hardware such as the Amazon Firestick.

Over twenty years since launch, the DRM solutions provided by Google and Microsoft are in steep decline. A complete overhaul of the technology architecture, licensing, and support model is needed. Lack of engagement with content owners indicates this a low priority.

UEFA and Relevent, a newly appointed media rights sales partner, are already surveying the rights market for the next cycle starting in 2027.

With minimal competitive tension in major European markets, incumbent broadcasters are unlikely to increase their bids.

Relevent will, however, try to leverage increased US appetite for soccer to lure a streamer into a global deal.

Broadcaster reach and viewing fell in 2024, but the decline slowed as BVOD growth increasingly makes up for linear decline and the BBC’s viewing grew year-on-year. 

SVOD penetration and engagement returned to (slight) growth in 2024 and video-sharing platforms are increasing their share of TV set viewing.

Broadcasters still offer a wider array of programming than SVODs, but they are expanding their offering, as is YouTube.

Global streamers have expanded their US premium sports coverage, but this will be difficult to replicate in Europe.

The main obstacle is much lower advertising revenues in European sport.

The concentration of European football rights and small pools of buyers mean that premium sports must be retailed on an opt-in basis.

Under financial stress, most streaming platforms are increasingly focusing on third-party distribution. Thanks to bundling, top streamers like Netflix can increase the lifetime value of subscribers, while smaller streamers widen their reach.

Bundles of streamers may have some potential in the US, but in Europe—with Netflix not interested—they do not have the necessary scale.

This trend towards bundling favours incumbent pay-TV aggregators like Sky and Canal+, but in the longer run they face competition from tech video marketplaces.

The Creative Industries (CI) are part of the UK’s emerging Industrial Strategy to power up output growth instead of relying mainly on consumer spend. Film & TV production is a prime example of a longstanding and successful industrial strategy that could be widely emulated.

Media’s contribution to economic growth is mainly in the form of a broad regional spread of skilled jobs created by a mixed ecosystem of commercial and not-for-profit entities, such as the BBC PSB Group and Channel 4, alongside 25,000 charities devoted to culture and recreation.

Media adds more than economic value to the UK by uniquely creating (unmeasurable) societal values through cultural products and services, anchoring a common language and identity at home, and conveying a vibrant and inspiring Britain to the world.
 

2023 was a challenge for Channel 4: with the advertising market failing to recover after a difficult start, the unpredictability led to an unexpected YoY drop in content expenditure

In 2024, advertising revenue is expected to be flat, which provides a more stable planning base. Recent volatility has tested the broadcaster’s flexibility and proactiveness, above its competitors who are more insulated

To that end, Channel 4’s process of diversifying its business—the difficulties of 2023 show that it needs to be supported in these endeavours if the sector wants a consistent return of benefits