It would be interesting to know how many of the top-level decision-makers in Big Pub who have decreed American and British consumers shall not have the subscription option for books, subscribe to unlimited music and video channels…
The quarterly reports from the Nordic book streamers are in danger of becoming, if never boring, as predictable as the former Soviet Union’s election results. Yesterday we saw BookBeat’s Q2 latest, and today we have the Q2 updates from Nextory and Storytel, and surprise, surprise, there’s no surprises.
Solid subscription and revenue percentages from Nextory and solid real numbers from Storytel, to add to the solid numbers from BookBeat yesterday.
Nextory prefers to share percentages rather than real numbers, but the 60% subscriber boom this past quarter was singled out by CEO Shadi Bitar in the press release thus:
Never before have we had such a large influx of new users during the first half of the year as this year.
Bitar had more to say, especially in reference to the recent launch in Norway and the Nubico acquisition in Spain:
At the beginning of May, Nextory launched with great success in Norway, where all targets have been exceeded during the first two months, which makes the Norwegian launch the company’s most successful to date. The Nextory app is now available in eight markets around Europe and soon the app will also launch in Spain, where the company recently acquired Spain’s largest, local streaming service Nubico.
Storytel, by contrast, shares numbers in granular detail (see press release) but for this essay a brief summary of the key points:
• 1.6 million subscribers, on target per forecast, of course.
• Q2 streaming revenues of SEK 545.5 million ($63.3 million), again in line with forecast.
• The Nordic sector exceeded forecast for paying subscribers (983,000) with Nordic streaming revenue in line with forecast at SEK 423.3 million ($49.2 million).
• Non-Nordic subscribers grew 52% YoY, to 643,000, in line with forecast, while non-Nordic streaming revenue just missed forecast at SEK 122.1 million ($14 million ).
Meanwhile US and UK publishers look the other way, hoping consumers will somehow believe subscription won’t work in the English-language countries despite its overwhelming popularity in other markets.
The reality of course is that unlimited subscription is the preferred consumption model for most consumers, given the chance. That is, if a full compliment of content is on offer.
But by holding back core content, or depriving unlimited subscription platforms of all content (Penguin Random House, I’m looking at you), some elements of mainstream US and UK publishing hope consumers will fall for the blatant pretence that unlimited subscription lacks consumer appeal.
It would be interesting to know how many of the top-level decision-makers in Big Pub who have decreed American and British consumers shall not have the subscription option for books, subscribe to unlimited music and video channels…
