Barb, the industry’s standard for understanding what people watch, has released data from its Establishment Survey showing that 20.8 million UK homes (70.3 per cent) had access to a subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) service in Q1 2026. This is slightly up from 20.6 million UK homes in Q4 2025.

Netflix continued to lead the market in subscriber numbers, whilst the Disney+ and Netflix ad tiers attracted the most new subscribers.

The service-level subscriptions data:

• Netflix: 18.1 million UK homes (61 per cent) had access to Netflix in Q1 2026, up slightly from 18.0m in Q4 2025.
  • In Q1 2026, 40 per cent of Netflix homes were on its ad tier (an increase from 38% in the previous quarter): 7.2 million UK homes (24.4 per cent), up from 6.9 million.

• Prime Video: 13.7 million UK homes (46.1 per cent) had access to Prime Video in Q1 2026, down slightly from 13.8 million in Q4 2025.
  • Due to a different approach to moving homes to its ad tier, in Q1 2026, 88 per cent of Prime Video homes were on its ad tier, up slightly from the previous quarter: 12 million UK homes (40.4 per cent), up from 11.9 million.

• Disney+: 7.8 million UK homes (26.1 per cent) had access to Disney+ in Q1 2026, up from 7.6 million in Q4 2025.
  • In Q1 2026, 37 per cent of Disney+ homes were on its ad tier (an increase from 35 per cent in the previous quarter): 2.8 million UK homes (9.6 per cent), up from 2.6 million.

• Discovery+: 3.5 million UK homes (11.8 per cent) had access to Discovery+ in Q1 2026, up slightly from 3.4 million in Q4 2025.
• Paramount+: 3.5 million UK homes (11.7 per cent) had access to Paramount+ in Q1 2026, flat from Q4 2025.
• Apple TV: 3.1 million UK homes (10.4 per cent) had access to Apple TV in Q1 2026, up slightly from 3.0m in Q4 2025.
• NOW: 2 million UK homes (6.8 per cent) had access to NOW in Q1 2026, flat from Q4 2025.

Doug Whelpdale, Head of Insight at Barb, commented: “For the first time, more than 70 per cent of UK 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 per cent and 4.8 per cent to stand at 2.8 million and 7.2 million homes in turn, they are up 68 per cent and 50 per cent respectively year-on-year.”

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Categories: Articles, Consumer Behaviour, Markets, Premium, Research, VOD

Tags: Apple TV, BARB, Disney, netflix, paramount