Ireland has the highest proportion of internet users paying for film, television series or sports streaming services in the European Union, according to new figures from Eurostat.
Seperate commercial research has found a similer rate of uptake, while also indicating that Irish consumers may be spending almost €2 billion a year on streaming services.
Eurostat says that almost two thirds of Irish internet users, 63.9%, had a paid subscription to at least one of these services in 2025.
The figure was higher than in any other EU member state, with Denmark next at 61.1% and the Netherlands at 59.2%.
The proportion of Irish internet users paying for film, television or sports streaming was almost twice the EU average of 32.7%.
The figures cover people aged between 16 and 74 who had used the internet during the three months before the survey.
At the other end of the scale, 9.3% of internet users in Bulgaria paid for this type of subscription. Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania also recorded relatively low levels of take-up.
Film, series and sports services were the most common type of paid online subscription across the EU.
Some 23% of internet users paid for music streaming, while 7.2% subscribed to online news sites, newspapers or magazines. A further 6.1% had a gaming streaming subscription.
The Eurostat figures dovetail with separate research by Censuswide for broadband provider Pure Telecom which found that 66% of adults paid for at least one streaming service.
Among those who subscribed, average monthly spending was €41.93.
The survey of 1,000 employees in Ireland also suggests that Irish consumers are spending almost €2bn a year on streaming services.
Respondants revealed that seven in 10 of them had cancelled at least one service in the previous year, with rising prices cited as the most common reason.
A third batch of research, by Ampere Analysis, found that subscribers in Western Europe had experienced the largest average price increases worldwide over the previous three years, with average monthly subscription costs increasing by €1.59.
The figures do not indicate whether the higher level of paid streaming in Ireland reflects greater consumption, differences in household circumstances or the availability and pricing of services.
