The market shares of Apple TV Plus have started to grow again, after a period of contraction caused by the end of the free trial period in July 2021: the latest report from JustWatch shows. Also thanks to a contraction of the opponent in the last two months, TV Plus is quite close to overtaking HBO Max globally: we are now at 7% against 5.6%. Disney Plus is far ahead, with 17.6%, and is confirmed as the king of newcomers; more established services, such as Netflix or Prime Video, are not included in the analysis.
TV Plus remained fairly stable at around 5% between January and July 2021; at that time Apple announced the end of the long free trial period, and between August and September there was a significant decline. Already in October, however, the shares had risen over 5%, up to precisely 5.6% in February 2022. For HBO Max, it was an even more eventful year: started 2021 below the 5% threshold (and therefore behind Apple’s service), then quickly rose to around 8% between July and November. As it happens, in October its debut was announced in various European countries (excluding Italy).
Despite the wider availability, however, the source noted a sharp decline in interest in the first two months of this year. Over the course of 2022 HBO Max is expected to expand to additional European states – in fact just a week ago, on March 8, availability was announced in:
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia
Still no Italy, therefore, and it is possible that we will have to wait until next year. As for Germany, France and the United Kingdom, distribution agreements are in force with other providers (for example in Italy Sky) which must be respected. In any case, Reuters he said a few days ago that another 6 countries should be reached by the end of 2022. Among other things, it is good to remember that the merger with Discovery Plus is on the horizon, which could bring additional subscribers.
We remind you that JustWatch is a database aggregator of streaming services that helps the user to choose what to watch and where; a guide, let’s say – or a search engine. The site does not have actual data on the platforms’ active subscriptions, but bases its measurements on the information of its users.
