Netflix originals account for less than 40% of viewing in key markets

New analysis from Omdia and PlumResearch data reveals the importance of originals in the US and other key Netflix markets such as: Brazil, UK, Mexico, Germany, India, South Korea, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Japan and Poland.?

Netflix reported 232 million paying subscriptions in its latest results, covering the quarter ending March 31. There were 74 million paying subscriptions in the US and Canada, representing 32% of the total, with EMEA now representing slightly more (33%) of its worldwide base.

US Market - Overview

According to PlumResearch data, there were 265 million unique viewers (UV) in the US in March 2023, considerably more than the 46.5 million UVs in its next most active market, Brazil, and the 37.4 million in the UK.

The population of the US was 333 million at the end of 2022, suggesting that roughly 55% of Americans use Netflix monthly, compared to a similar 55% of the UK, but only 22% of Brazilians and 27% of Mexicans. Mexico was the fourth-biggest market in terms of UVs in March 2023.

Netflix has invested in providing high-value content

Netflix has made significant investments in order to offer its audience premier content, delivering a whopping 3,531 hours of fresh material in 2022 alone. It's projected that 42% of the $5.8 billion worth of original productions unveiled in the last year were sourced from outside of the US, with strategic markets such as South Korea and the UK receiving notable funding.

Original programming has grown even more crucial for the streaming giant now that nearly all major US content creators (except for Sony Pictures) are vying directly for global subscribers. While Netflix surpasses all other platforms in the creation of new original content, US studios have the advantage of extensive archives of film and TV material. Paramount boasts 30,000 TV episodes and more than 2,500 film titles, while Disney+ reportedly released over 500 films and 7,500 TV episodes within its first year of operation in 2019. In response, Netflix continues to produce highly successful original series like Squid Game, Stranger Things, and Wednesday, due to its lack of a historical content repository to rely on.

14.8 billion hours streamed in the US

The United States leads the pack in terms of cumulative hours of viewership, with a staggering 14.8 billion hours of content streamed in the country during the first quarter of 2023. Mexico has overtaken the UK to secure the third spot on this list, just behind Brazil, clocking in a total of 3,180 hours of streaming compared to the UK's 2,860 hours. Viewership in Spain and Japan slightly lags behind that of South Korea and Argentina, with both latter countries registering higher in this ranking.

India and South Korea come top in terms of total hours watched per viewer

India and South Korea take the lead when it comes to total viewing hours per subscriber. On average, an Indian Netflix viewer consumed 40 hours of content in March, equating to roughly 1.3 hours a day, while in South Korea, subscribers watched an hour a day. At the lower end of the spectrum, the average viewing time for a Japanese subscriber was only 20.3 hours - less than half the figure for India. The US also demonstrated a relatively lower average at 25 hours, closely followed by the UK at 24.5 hours. While these figures are far from insignificant, they fall short when compared to the average viewing times reported in Omdia’s Cross-Platform Television Viewing Time Report – 2022. Last year, the average viewing time for linear TV in the US was two hours and 55 minutes, while in the UK it was two hours and 22 minutes. These statistics cast a somewhat pessimistic light on Reed Hastings' comment that Netflix's main competition is sleep.

Miko?aj Piotrowski , VP, Global Marketing and Communications at PlumResearch, commented on this data, saying:

Our data shows that there is room for content diversity in the streaming landscape, which is good news both for platforms investing in original content and its marketing, and for external producers seeking distribution channels. The variety of original and licensed content broadens the spectrum of choice for the audience. Ultimately, viewers vote in the popularity contest and choose the winners. Consequently, the entertainment industry can make decisions informed by viewership trends based on audience data.

The report you can find here.