Majority of Americans with SVODs but fatigue setting in, claims report

Almost three quarters of Americans have at least one streaming subscription.

According to a new report from Horowitz, from 2018 to 2021, SVOD subscriptions increased from 50% to 74% among TV content viewers in the US.

While part of this growth is attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic, the report notes that the influx of new services such as Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock and discovery+ have all contributed to SVOD growth.

However, the pandemic had a significant impact on MVPD subscriber loss. Some 36% of US MVPD subscribers have cut the cord within the past two years, up from 23% in 2020. Of those who have cancelled in the past year, 16% attributed their cord-cutting to the pandemic. 

But while the uptake of streaming has skyrocketed, the survey found that fatigue may be starting to set in for Americans. Half of respondents said that they feel there are too many streaming services while 49% of TV content viewers say they find it hard to know what shows are on which streaming services, and 44% say they often have a hard time finding something to watch at all.

Adriana Waterston, SVP of Insights and Strategy for Horowitz, said: “We are at a very interesting, pivotal moment. In the early days of streaming, many media companies were concerned that their network brands no longer mattered in the new ecosystem, with so much content from so many networks consolidated and commoditized under the Netflix umbrella. With this shift towards a direct-to-consumer approach, brands matter once again – a win-win for driving both subscription and advertising revenue.”