Household expenditure on digital services amounts to c.€900m per annum, with video streaming accounting for a just under a quarter of that figure, according to estimates from the Central Statistics Office.

Video streaming services, as Netflix and NOW, account for 24% of spend (€211m), the CSO estimates, followed by online gaming at €137m (15%) and online gambling at €130m (15%).

Of the total spent by Irish households on digital services in 2020, the CSO estimates that €138m (15%) was spent with Irish resident companies.

The largest share of digital service imports came from the UK at €300m, with online gambling being the largest service type imported from the UK.

Statistician Patrick Quill explained that the analysis is based on data from administrative sources as well as from publicly available information.

In Association with

“The analysis includes estimates of spending by households on streaming, gaming, audiobooks, podcasts, social media, app stores, data storage services, education and wellbeing, and other online services. The costs of access to broadband and television are not included,” she said.

The CSO cautioned that one of the challenges of compiling statistics on the digital economy is gathering information on online purchases by households. Payments can be frequent and small, and may also fall outside some reporting requirements.

Data sources include the VAT MOSS scheme (recently replaced by VAT OSS) which facilitates business providers of telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services to declare and pay the VAT due on these services by submission of a return via a mini-one-stop shop in the member state where they have registered.

The estimates of gambling spend are based on a separate data source on the duty paid on online gambling made available to the CSO from the Revenue Commissioners.

The CSO said it had also obtained information from various articles, studies, and reports from private companies and researchers.

The results are used in the compilation of the balance of payments statistics, which measures all economic transactions conducted between residents and non-residents over a given period.

“Although the online purchases of services by households comprise just 0.2% of the total imports of services to Ireland in 2020, this research makes sure that these imports are not missing from the balance of payments statistics,” the CSO stated.