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LoveFilm soars as Netflix dips in March according to Ofcom figures

LoveFilm’s audience share for people streaming video leapt by 50 per cent in March, according to Ofcom. Figures from the annual Communications Market Report show that 2.5 million UK viewers watched movies and TV programmes on LoveFilm Instant earlier this year.

This puts LoveFilm Instant head and shoulders above rivals Netflix, which snagged 1.2 million viewers in March.

Netflix is currently third overall in the UK league table of streaming video services. Yahoo! Movies is second with 1.4 million users with Blinkbox inching in just over 1 million.

LoveFilm soars as Netflix dips in March according to Ofcom figures

There’s a general dip in Yahoo and Netflix numbers from February to March, suggesting that subscribers ditched these for LoveFilm or, lost interest when their first 30 days of free Netflix ran out.

The numbers from Nielsen/UKCOM refer to streams from sites, but doesn’t include figures for people accessing services from phone or tablet apps, so Netflix’s total UK numbers will be higher.

Elsewhere, the report shows that YouTube remains the most popular video sharing site, commanding an audience of 20.8 million by March, way ahead of second placer DailyMotion with 1.9 million viewers.

LoveFilm soars as Netflix dips in March according to Ofcom figures

Despite being second place, DailyMotion has enjoyed a climb of some 51 per cent up form last year, whereas YouTube grew by just 6 per cent.

Again, the figures here don’t take into account mobile app use; numbers are drawn from anyone ages 2 or above using ‘an internet-enabled computer’ to access sites. Given that there’s YouTube apps pre-installed on every iPhone and Android phone, the total figure will be much higher. It’s unlikely though that this would do anything to alter YouTube’s position as top dog in the UK though.

Looking solely at fixed-line connections, the report concludes that some 25 million of us Brits regularly consume video online from the likes of YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo and Yahoo! Video.
 

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