Liverpool & Manchester named UK’s Netflix capitals
December 1, 2020
Research from Zen Internet identifies Manchester and Liverpool as the Netflix capitals of the UK, with over half (56 per cent) of households in these cities opening their arms to the streaming service. Meanwhile, Amazon Prime Video is proving a popular choice in Edinburgh for streaming services, with almost one in two (47 per cent) households in the Scottish capital signed up to get their TV fix.
Surveying over 2,000 consumers, Zen found that Netflix leads the streaming wars, with half (50 per cent) of UK households now signed up the service. This compares to just over a third (38 per cent) who pay for Amazon Prime Video. Households with the packages are watching nearly nine hours a week of Netflix but under six hours of Amazon’s service.
Top three Netflix cities
- Liverpool – 56 per cent
- Manchester – 56 per cent
- London – 54 per cent
Top three Amazon Prime cities
- Edinburgh – 47 per cent
- Southampton – 43 per cent
- Liverpool – 42 per cent
At the other end of the spectrum, households in the South West are the least likely to use streaming services to watch their favourite shows, with just one in three (35 per cent) in Bristol subscribed to Netflix and one in five (17 per cent) not having a TV or streaming service at all.
People in Plymouth are becoming more savvy when it comes to their own TV needs, with households in this area the most likely to be considering ‘unbundling’ from costly broadband plus TV packages due to lack of value (12 per cent), ahead of those in Liverpool (10 per cent) and Newcastle (10 per cent). Londoners are the most sceptical of broadband and TV bundles – with the capital home to the most households (12 per cent) that have already unbundled. One in 10 (9 per cent) households in Newcastle and Norwich have done the same.
The research also uncovered an incoming subscription boom that is set to hit East Anglia, with one in five (18 per cent) households in Norwich due to increase their streaming subscriptions. With a similar trend in Liverpool (10 per cent), households in the UK regions will want to make sure their TV streaming time is underpinned by strong, reliable connectivity.
“Across the UK, we’ve seen a real change in the way people are watching and discovering new TV shows and films,” reports Richard Tang, Founder and Chairman, Zen. “This was already evident even before the pandemic struck and has been massively accelerated by it. Now, as social restrictions are set to continue through the winter months and people are reliant on accessing entertainment at home, it has never been more important to provide every household with a reliable and speedy broadband connection – from people living in the big city centres to those in rural locations.”
“Customers should avoid getting tied down to their Internet provider through costly broadband and TV bundles that don’t offer value, and know that if the service isn’t up to scratch then switching is easier than they might think.”