More than 37'000 films are available in Switzerland on monetised video-on-demand (VoD) platforms to buy, rent or view on subscription and streaming services (SVoD). In terms of demand – even more than at the cinema – American productions are predominant.
Overview
Offerings
The FSO statistics on VoD concern films lasting at least 60 minutes (series excluded) available for a fee in a digital format. One provider can operate several platforms.
In 2021, 20 providers operated 26 platforms. Operation of several platforms by a unique provider is no longer current in 2022 since we counted 22 providers for 22 platforms that year. Rentals remain the most proposed VoD type, ahead of SVoD and sales.
In 2022, number of films available ranged between 19'000 and 28'000 depending on the VoD type. Compared with the first year for which detailed data is available (2019), all VoD types have seen their offerings increase considerably. SVoD saw its offerings more than double.
Usage
Use of VoD has still remained the same or has decreased compared to previous years.
Annual SVoD views have recorded relative growth rates of over 50% in 2019 and 2020. Although demand has continued to grow since then, relative demand has weakened further in 2022. This growth rate remains nonetheless – even without series – at a high level compared to other types of VoD.
Buying films on VoD is becoming less and less popular. Between 2017 and 2019, the number of digital film sales on VoD platforms rose by 25% to 1.28 million. Between 2020 and 2022, we recorded successive falls of -6%, -21% and -9% to reach 0.87 million purchases.
The number of film rentals in digital format fell by 54% between 2017 and 2021. Despite a slight increase in 2022, film rentals remain at a level comparable to 2021, with around 4.36 million rentals.
Film offerings and usage by origin of films
In addition to American films, which accounted for roughly half of VoD films, in 2022, European productions were also well-represented in the film offerings. They made up almost 40% of films available to buy and to rent and 36% of those on subscription services. In 2022, US movies continue to dominate to a large extent (70-79% depending on VoD type) in terms of usage.
Swiss films have little presence on VoD platforms: Some 2% of films available to buy and around 3% of films available to rent or on subscription and streaming services (SVoD) are Swiss. Demand for these films is even lower. Around 1% of film sales or rentals and considerably less than 1% of views on subscription and streaming services (SVoD) concern Swiss productions.
Regardless of a film’s origin, around 30% of VoD films were also screened in Swiss cinemas. These films account for more than three quarters of sales and rentals, and for around a half of all views on subscription and streaming services.
Film offerings and usage by genre category
A great amount of attention is given to animated films, proportionally to the offer. In 2021 only 4% of films available on VoD were animated films. However, they generated around 14% of film sales, 12% of film rentals and 11% of views on subscription and streaming services.
With 8% to 10% of the VoD film offerings, documentary films are somewhat better represented than animated films, but still show a much lower percentage of usage (1% to 4%). All other films are registered as “feature films”. Films in this category dominate both offerings and demand.
Further information
Statistical sources and concepts
Contact
Federal Statistical Office Section Politics, Culture and MediaEspace de l'Europe 10
2010 Neuchâtel
Switzerland
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