The paid-for streaming market in the U.K. is fast catching up with the freemium market, according to a survey on consumption from the Entertainment Retailers Association, which suggests that the former could overtake the latter by year-end. As of November last year, 21.5% of those surveyed stream for free, while 20.6% pay.
Those free streamers are down 0.2% on 2017, while premium users are up 2.3%.
Free streaming tiers count ad-funded, free trials and those who are one a family license paid for by somebody else. Paid counts single, paid family, student discount and bundled licenses.
The data comes from ERA’s entertainment survey which has quizzed a panel of 1,500 people on how they consume music video and games, tracking changing service and format preferences, every quarter for the past five years.
