Amazon Prime Video’s UK subscriber numbers increased by 35-per-cent year-on-year during the fourth quarter of 2019 on the back of its coverage of football’s English Premier League.

Amazon’s three-year rights deal with the Premier League, signed in June 2018, commenced this season, with the company streaming two full rounds of fixtures in December.

Data from UK television ratings body Barb has revealed that 7.14 million homes now have an Amazon Prime subscription – a significant increase on the end of 2018, when it had a presence in 5.28 million homes.

Netflix remains the largest service with over 12 million households holding a subscription but Amazon Prime has overtaken Netflix as the fastest-growing streaming service in the country.

Barb’s data found that 14.27 million households in the UK now hold a subscription to at least one of Netflix, Amazon Prime or Sky’s Now TV. It marks the first time that more than half of UK homes have a subscription to at least one of three services.

Barb noted that the number of UK households fell from 28.58 million in Q1 of 2019 to 28.12 million in Q2.

Following its first round of Premier League fixtures in early December, Amazon revealed that its coverage had led to record sign-ups to Prime. It did not reveal full viewing figures for the coverage but said that “millions” had tuned in.

Amazon Prime also holds rights in the UK to the US Open tennis grand slam until 2022, as well as the men’s ATP World Tour and women’s WTA Tour until 2023.