The number of U.K. homes subscribing to an SVOD service inched up to 20.8 million homes in Q1 2026 from 20.6 million in Q4 of last year, with Netflix in the lead at 18.1 million homes, according to new Barb data.
Barb’s new Establishment Survey indicates that 70% of all U.K. homes have access to an SVOD platform; 61% subscribe to Netflix. Per Barb, 40% of Netflix homes are on the ad tier, up from 38% in the previous quarter, bringing the total to 7.2 million. Prime Video ranks in second, slipping from 13.8 million subs to 13.7 million, 12 million of which are on the ad tier, up from 11.9 million. Disney+ is in 7.8 million U.K. homes, rising from 7.6 million, with 37% on the ad tier.
Operating at smaller bases, Discovery+ grew to 3.5 million homes, Paramount+ was flat at 3.5 million, Apple TV+ rose slightly to 3.1 million and NOW was stable at 2 million.
Doug Whelpdale, head of insight at Barb, said: “For the first time, more than 70% of U.K. homes had access to an SVOD service in the first quarter of this year. All services showed modest quarter-on-quarter changes. While the Disney+ and Netflix ad tiers had quarterly growth of 8.7% and 4.8% to stand at 2.8 million and 7.2 million homes in turn, they are up 68% and 50% respectively year-on-year.”
