Netflix has nearly twice the number of customers than Amazon Prime Video in the UK as the total number of SVOD customers nears 10m, according to a report from ratings firm Barb. The Crown broadcaster has 7.5M customers in the country compared to The Grand Tour service’s 3.8M.

While neither US firm officially breaks out subscriber data by foreign territory, the figures have been released by Barb – the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board – via The SVOD Report: Charting The Growth In SVOD Services Across The UK.

In addition to Netflix and Amazon’s subscribers, Now TV, the on-demand service operated by pay-TV broadcaster Sky, experienced the largest annual subscription growth of 70%, adding 600,000 subscribers in the last twelve months to reach a subscription base of 1.4M households. This takes the total number of homes with an SVOD service to 9.5M – up 24% in 2017.

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However, despite Netflix’s dominance, helped by originations such as Stranger Things and Black Mirror, it grew the slowest of the services, with a 22% annual growth rate, compared to Amazon’s 34%.

All three services are expected to grow in 2018; Netflix will be hoping more originals, with a particular focus on non-scripted commissions and feature films, building on Will Smith’s sci-fi action adventure Bright, can help, while Amazon will be buoyed by the hire of its European original content boss Georgia Brown, who started full-time at the company this month.

“The SVOD market is enjoying a sustained period of growth in the UK; more than nine million UK households subscribe to at least one SVOD service. When you take into account homes that have more than one service, we can project that there are over 12 million subscriptions to SVOD services. This is in addition to any pay-TV packages to which homes are committed, and the SVOD market has not yet reached maturity,” Barb noted.