Only 31% on Netflix/Amazon watch original content
August 6, 2015
Over two-thirds of online TV subscribers in the UK don’t watch original shows such as Neflix’s House of Cards or Amazon Prime Instant Video’s Extant according to Ofcom research.
Netflix and Amazon, the two biggest online TV services in the UK, have invested heavily in original programming in a bid to attract more subscribers – with Amazon just last week agreeing a £160 million (€228m) deal to bring a new Jeremy Clarkson-fronted show to its streaming service.
But just 31 per cent of people told Ofcom they used an online TV service to watch original programming in an April survey, compared to 75 per cent who said they used the service to watch films and almost half who said they watched US shows.
Ofcom said some of the respondents to the survey could have been unaware that they had watched programming commissioned by the services, despite being provided with prompts such as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black during the survey.
The figures suggest that the majority of UK online TV subscribers are more concerned with back catalogues and imported TV than exclusive content.