Discovery+ makes almost instant impact

discovery+ is said by owner Discovery to offer the industry’s largest-ever content library for a new streaming service with more than 55,000 episodes. Globally, content is drawn from Discovery’s flagship brands, the BBC’s Natural History collection, A&E Networks and Group Nine among others. The portfolio includes a range of exclusive, original series across popular, passion verticals in which Discovery brands have a strong leadership position, including lifestyle and relationships; home and food; true crime; paranormal; adventure and natural history; as well as science, tech and the environment, and a slate of high-quality documentaries.

In the US discovery+ also offers over 2,500 current and classic shows from Discovery’s portfolio of networks, including HGTV, Food Network, TLC, ID, OWN, Travel Channel, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. As part of a new content partnership, discovery+ will bring together for the first time the top non-fiction content from A&E, The HISTORY Channel and Lifetime with the Discovery brand portfolio.

In its study, Antenna, which provides measurement and analytics for subscription businesses, investigated sign-ups in the premium SVOD arena and found that overall they had grown 2% month-on-month from December to January. discovery+ drove the increase, claiming 19% of sign-ups. Antenna noted that excepting discovery+, total premium SVOD sign-ups in January fell 17% from December.

Following discovery+ in the sign-ups ratings were HBO Max with 14%; Disney+ on 13%; CBS All Access and Hulu both with 11%; Starz, 8%; Showtime, 7%; Peacock and Netflix, 6%; Apple TV+ 4%. HBO Max was the clear sign-ups leader in December 2020 with as many as 27% of all sign ups with Disney+ following on 11%. Hulu was third on 12%.

Antena also observed that the majority of discovery+ sign-ups came via third-party distributors including Apple, Amazon and Roku. By comparison, when Disney+ launched in November 2019, over half of sign-ups came via the direct channel. The same was true for HBO Max (May 2020) and Peacock (July 2020). Rapidtvnews