The percentage of consumers who say they use one or more subscription streaming service belonging to a friend or family member has declined slightly across most major platforms, a series of consumer surveys conducted by Hub Entertainment Research shows.

As this graphic reveals, the small downward trend began in the second quarter of last year, right around the time that Netflix initiated its big global crackdown of password-sharers here in the U.S. 

Venturing into seemingly dangerous terrain, Hub claims that, "Viewers who use others’ passwords are more likely to be younger, non-white and have kids."

The research company also said that password sharers tend to be TV lovers. 

"It’s a mistake to assume people who use another’s SVOD password do it because they are reluctant to pay for TV," Hub added. "When it comes to paid subscriptions, more than 4 in 10 of this segment pay for a hefty 6 or more TV services. And among MVPD and vMVPD subscribers, the password sharers are also much heavier users of premium cable channels. In fact, they are heavier users of nearly all sources of TV, both paid and free, compared to those who do not share passwords."

Consumers are more likely than ever to watch video content through social media, rather than traditional TV or streaming options. And for its coverage of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, NBCUniversal smartly realized this shift. 

Citing new data Maverix Research and Insight’s Media Identity Graph (MIDG) analysts Liz Huszarik and Alexia Raven found that social video accounted for 62.2% of watch time in 2024, compared to just 35.2% for SVODs.

That’s down from 43% for SVODs in 2022, and up from 54% for social video.

According to the research firm, recognizing these consumptions shifts and accounting for them is what made NBCUniversal’s coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics so successful.

During the Paris Olympic Games, NBC focused on engaging audiences through the use of platforms like TikTok, Youtube,  Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) in order to deliver real-time video content and meet what the researchers call “the modern demand for instant updates.”

Maverix said that NBC specifically targeted Gen Z and Millennials, who watch a collective average of 11.9 hours of video content each day.

They’re also far more likely to consume social media content than other age groups, with social video watch time among Millennials increasing 17% since 2022, and Gen Z showing 11% growth in the same period, all while SVOD viewing stayed flat, or even declined.

Another major part of NBC’s strategy focused on harnessing the fan appeal of Olympic athletes, in order to boost engagement for both NBC and the athletes.

The company highlighted Ilona Maher and Freddy Richard, who created exclusive behind-the-scenes content, as well as Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, and Noah Lyles, who took over NBC’s social media channels for a day to engage with fans.

Tiktok in particular was critical to NBC’s strategy, attempting to harness the massive year-over-year growth in watch time among Millennials (54%) and Gen Z (15%).

Currently, the official NBC Olympics Account has 4.3 million followers on TikTok and 2 million followers on Instagram.

According to Maverix, NBC’s use of social media demonstrated just how quickly the media landscape is shifting toward social video.

“This strategy isn’t only about capturing viewers; it’s packed with insights for brands and advertisers trying to navigate this new terrain,” wrote Huszarik and Raven. “As the media world keeps evolving, NBC's approach provides a solid blueprint for future live event coverage and content delivery that others can and should follow.”

New survey data published Monday by Hub Entertainment Research suggests that customers are nearing their budgetary limits on monthly spending for TV subscriptions.

Per Hub’s annual “Monetization of Video” report, based on a recent survey of 1,600 U.S. TV consumers, the average person spends $82 on on TV content — just $5 less than the $87 maximum respondents say they would pay.

But while cost is still a key factor to consider, Hub’s data suggests that many users also have a greater preference for ad-free services, even at higher-price tiers.

Also Read: Netflix Boots Legacy Subscribers Off Its $11.99 Basic Ad-Free Plan

When asked whether they would continue to use an existing service in a year, 85% of respondents said they would “definitely or most likely maintain usage of their ad-free streaming services.”

And just under three-quarters of people surveyed said they were confident they would maintain their allegiance to partly ad-supported subscription services, such as Netflix Basic with Ads.

While FAST channels are attractive to many budget-minded consumers, Hub’s report suggests that viewers still have a lower reported confidence in them, as 26% of consumers who use FAST services said they were likely or definitely going to stop using them.

“Despite the plateau in overall spend, people paying extra for ad-free services consider them more valuable and are more loyal,” wrote Hub in the report. “Cheaper ad-supported and FAST services like Pluto and Tubi have helped to fill the gaps for people tapped out on spending, but loyalties to those services may not be as strong.”

According to Hub’s report, the most important thing to determine consumer loyalty is that a streaming service have “lower prices than other platforms with similar content,” meaning that it is able to provide comparable content to its competitors without raising prices.

Consumers also want the ability to choose between ad-free and less expensive ad-supported tiers, as both were listed in the report’s top seven features that add the most value for customers.

“These results are encouraging for streamers under pressure to maximize profits,” Hub principal Jon Giegengack said in a statement. “Consumers are feeling the pinch of inflation. But even so, key content like theatrical movies and exclusive originals are as important as cost — great news for platforms that need to raise prices, not lower them.”

It's no longer about video consumers “cutting the cord,” with younger folks determining new, more user-friendly ways of watching television. 

Heck, “Netflix and chill” isn't even a thing with these kids anymore

The whole idea of what is video entertainment is being reimagined by the youngest generations, with new research suggesting “Gen Alpha” (roughly defined as those born between 2013 and 2024) devotes 78% of its screen time to watching video distributed on social media. 

Social video time share is 56% for Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012), up from 46% just two years ago. 

The data comes from Maverix Insights & Strategy (by way of Hub Entertainment Research). Maverix is the new research company co-founded by former Warner Bros. Discovery research gurus Liz Huszarik and Alexia Raven. 

Maverix’s “Media Identity Graph” calls on brand marketers to rethink their strategies for reaching younger consumers. 

These whippersnappers, the group contends, don't live in the living room anymore. Social via their smartphone is their lifestyle. 

We found this data point particularly interesting: Across subsections of younger consumers, usage of subscription streaming services including Netflix, Hulu and Apple TV Plus is still pretty frequent and regular. 

But consumption of video via YouTube, as well as social media platforms including Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, is even heavier. More than 80% of parent survey respondents report that their 18-to-26-year-old adult children use YouTube or these social platforms, vs. slightly less than 80% for the major SVODs. 

Admittedly, this isn't a new concept. Every month, for instance, Nielsen releases its U.S. TV consumption market share tracker, The Gauge, which always reveals that usage of YouTube far surpasses that of any other streaming platform, based on living-room consumption alone. 

Look, all we're saying is, before you commit billions of dollars to buying a major Hollywood studio, give it a good think. 

In a recent Hub Entertainment Research survey, 59% of U.S. consumers said they'd “pay for a service to manage, use and pay for all my subscriptions in one place.”

But don't mistake this collective "bundling" impulse as merely a desire to return to pay TV-style content packaging. It's more of a broader impulse to restore old cable-world “triple-play” economics. 

Back in the day, your cable company would bundle video, high-speed internet and landline phone services. And when Hub recently asked several thousand U.S. consumers what they'd most like to see in a bundle, here were the top five selections:

And when the question was distilled to just men 18-24, here's how the responses broke down:

The stickiness of Netflix is notable to operators like Comcast, which is currently bundling the streaming giant alongside Apple TV Plus and its own Peacock service in a package it calls StreamSaver. 

Might Comcast, which already bundles fast-growing Xfinity Mobile wireless service with home broadband, be better served by adding Netflix to that package? Or perhaps a third-party music service, too?

Hub also found that Amazon’s service portfolio became more “essential” to consumers when video, music and gaming were combined in a triple play. 

In offering its Xfinity cable subscribers discounted bundles of Netflix, Peacock and Apple TV Plus, Comcast will be offering three of the top seven most coveted technology/media/telecom brands, according to analysis of a Hub Entertainment Research survey of 3,000 consumers. 

Comcast has announced few details about its bundle, called StreamSaver, since company chairman and CEO Brian Roberts mentioned it earlier this week at a MoffettNathanson investor conference. 

But by establishing a closer bundling relationship with the largest video streaming company, Comcast has the potential to bundle the three services consumers say they most want packaged together: high-speed internet, Netflix and wireless. 

This potential hasn't escaped the notice of Verizon, either, which has also bundled Netflix into various iterations.

For its part, Hub suggests the real potential of bundling will be unlocked with packages that reach beyond just video streaming. Younger consumers, Hub's survey noted, reported using an average of 16.7 entertainment services, and most of them aren't TV-related. 

Amazon Prime Video, which only began integrating ad-support in January, now has 85% of its user base on its partially advertising-based tier, according to newly published data from Hub Entertainment Research. 

This compares to only 22% for Netflix, which launched its ad-supported tier back in November 2022. 

The key difference, as Hub points out, was execution of the strategy -- in order to avoid being defaulted into Amazon's ad-supported tier, Prime members have to make the proactive account-settings change within the app to pay an additional $2.99 to avoid commercials. 

It's the other way around for services like Netflix, where users choose to save money by switching to the commercial-laden tiers. 

“Virtually overnight, Amazon Prime Video dramatically transformed the video advertising ecosystem,” said Mark Loughney, senior consultant for Hub, in a statement. “Suddenly advertisers have the ability to reach tens of millions of viewers on one platform, with robust targeting capabilities and a vast retail capability. Amazon has immediately launched themselves into ‘must buy’ territory for advertisers and media agencies.”

For its latest Quarterly Churn Tracker, Hub surveyed 6,338 US consumers age 16-74, who watch at least one hour of TV per week, from January - March. 

Notably, with the shift of the second largest U.S. subscription video platform to partial ad support, the percentage of domestic SVOD users who stream only commercial-free video dropped 9 percentage points from the fourth quarter to the first quarter, Hub added. 

Meanwhile, Hub also found that at least early on, strong-arming its users into watching commercials hasn't harmed Amazon Prime Video's market share within the  U.S. SVOD business. 

For Apple's pricey Vision Pro virtual reality headset, the consumer awareness and interest has arrived, but the $3,499.99 price point just might be out of reach. 

According to Hub Entertainment Research's new "Connected Home" study, which surveyed an impressively large sample of 5,026 U.S. consumers ages 16-74, 49% of Americans are aware of the Apple Vision Pro. And 53% indicate some level in interest in the device. 

Also read: Apple’s ‘Vision Pro’ Headset: 'Let Us Strap the Screen to Your Face So You Never Stop Making Money For Us' (Frankel)

But 76% of U.S. consumers said they were "not likely" to buy the gadget, with only 10% indicating a purchase was probable. 

Apple debuted the Vision Pro at retail back in January and said it sold 200,000 units of the device at launch.

Apple is offering interest-free financing to consumers, allowing them to pay $291.58 a month for a year -- about what you'd pay monthly to lease a subcompact car.

According to a SmithGeiger Group survey conducted exclusively for the Penske showbiz trades, watching movies or TV shows ranked as the activity U.S. adults most want to do on Apple's mixed reality headset. 

Apple had several TV commercials in heavy rotation around the product launch -- and during the heavily watched NFL postseason -- showcasing the Apple Vision Pro as a home theater replacement device. See the guy watching Napoleon in this spot:

For its part, Hub sees the Apple Vision Pro's market being limited to gaming right now, with room for expansion in the realm of movie and TV viewing. But the problem with that is, the research company says, consumers are really vibing on smart TVs, which are far cheaper.

Hub said penetration of smart TVs into U.S. homes has reached 79%.

“With more affordable and higher quality TVs available, it’s no surprise that people are continuing to upgrade their home theaters to better Smart TVs that make watching favorite streaming content easy,” says Jason Platt Zolov, consultant to Hub and study co-author. “The exciting debut of the Apple Vision Pro headset is a big step toward making advanced headset usage more mainstream -- although there is clearly room to grow in further integrating it into traditional living room behavior.”

While 96% of U.S. consumers recently polled are familiar with Apple TV Plus, only 51% can explain the difference between the subscription streaming service and other major SVODs. 

Netflix, meanwhile, boasts 100% "brand awareness" and an industry-leading 88% brand "understanding," according to Hub Entertainment Research, which surveyed 1,600 consumers or its 2025 Evolution of Video Branding report.

In most cases, Hub notes, brand understanding lags significantly behind awareness for most big U.S. SVOD services. 

And without brand understanding, the research company says, users tend to sign up for SVOD services based on their desire to see a specific movie or TV show. 

Notably, in 2024, fewer users signed up for Max and Disney Plus to see a specific program, a dynamic, Hub claims, that could be tied to both services significantly scaling back on content. 

Conversely, Peacock -- which has seen increased investment, including NBCUniversal's decision to pay the NFL $100 million to put a playoff game exclusively on its streaming service -- has seen an uptick in sign-ups driven by specific content.

“As big streamers aim to be all things for all people, viewers are struggling to identify what distinguishes them from each other,” said Hub consultant Jason Platt Zolov, in a statement. “Until streamers develop more brand-defining features, viewer loyalty is at risk and consumers will continue to churn as they chase shows across services.”

A new survey from Hub Entertainment Research shows just how much influence live sports has over a consumer’s choice of streaming platform. The analysts suggest that after years of “peak TV,” buzzy, scripted originals are no longer enough to attract and hold subscribers.

Conducted in January, Hub interviewed 3,016 U.S. sports fans age 13 to 74 for its semiannual study, What’s the Score: The Evolution of Sports Media.

“These findings reinforce that sports content will have a big impact on the next stage of the streaming wars, and might entirely settle them,” Hub principal Jon Giegengack said. “There are lots of sports fans, and they care more about the sports they follow than anything else on TV. As expensive as rights have become, they may turn out to be the best investment: hours and hours of unique content which comes with a built-in audience that tunes in every season without fail.” 

 Key findings include:

80% of sports fans say that during the season, content about their favorite sport is more important than other things they watch on TV. More than one-third (36%) say it’s much more important than other kinds of content.

75% of avid fans indicated that they would be likely to sign up for a new streaming subscription if they needed it to watch a sport they follow. 

27% often stay on the same channel to watch the show that comes on after a live game and another 38% do so “occasionally,” helping new shows cut through the clutter to find an audience.

The average price of gasoline was $3.24. Marvel's Iron Man 3 was the No. 1 movie at the box office. One of the first made-for-streaming original series, House of Cards, debuted on Netflix. CBS' NCIS was TV's top scripted show. "Thrift Shop" from Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (featuring Wanz) was the No. 1 single. 

Eighty-six percent of Americans had pay TV at home, and only 21% of U.S. consumers used a smart TV to stream video. 

The year was 2013. And a lot of stuff has changed since then ... especially in the video business. Hub Entertainment Research, which was founded a decade ago, sums up the "then and now" quite nicely in this chart:

Smart TV operating systems have zoomed past pay TV set-tops as the first thing U.S. consumers tap into when they turn on their set.

According to Hub Entertainment Research, which surveyed 1,601 adult consumers, 32% of viewers say that Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV or whichever software platform is powering their smart TV is their default choice when turning on the set. That's up from 22% just two years ago. 

Meanwhile, just 30% of watchers listed the set-top as their default platform, down from 41% in 2021. 

Connected TV devices stayed largely flat, increasing from 17% to 19% from 2021 to 2023. 

Forty percent of TV viewers said that their TV default was a subscription video on-demand (SVOD) service such as Netflix . And even though live TV continues to be the most common default source for viewers, SVOD usage seems set to overtake it-- according to data from the Hub Entertainment Research'd annual Decoding the Default survey.

The research tracks the "default" source of content that consumers first turn to when they first fire up their smart TV.  The survey tracked 1,601 U.S. consumers with broadband, age 16-74, who watch at least 1 hour of TV per week. 

While live TV remains the most common form of default viewing, with 46% of viewers citing it as their first choice, that gap has narrowed significantly in recent years and now stands only a single percentage point ahead of SVOD services. 

Ironically, the availability of live content on online platforms may actually be helping TV retain its spot as a top default source, as nearly twice the number of viewers said they began watching online compared to those who use an over set-top box.

This is bad news for traditional cable companies, as the once necessary and often expensive addition to every package has now fallen way behind, with the disparity between online and traditional MVPD sources expanding to over 28 points.

The survey also points to the popularity of smart TVs, as in just the past two years built-in smart TV apps have attracted a third of total customers and overtaken set top boxes as the default starting point for TV.

According to the Hub survey, 45% of those enrolled with traditional service providers cited live sports and news as their primary motivation for subscribing to the service. Those enrolled with virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPD) responded similarly, with 56% citing live sports and news as their motivation.

That’s not entirely unexpected, but it does underscore the importance of live sports and news as preventative measures against cord cutting for MVPDs and vMVPDs.

This is especially critical considering the Hub’s finding that consumers are much more likely to remain loyal to those services they call their default.

When surveyed, a majority of respondents across the board said that if forced to select only one provider, they would choose to keep the one that they typically reach for first. Most consistent were those who watched Netflix, as 64% of default Netflix viewers said they would keep the service.

Mark Loughney, senior consultant to the Hub emphasized just how imperative this data is for providers to better maintain their viewer-base.

“In order for providers to retain customers in the competitive streaming video marketplace, it’s critical to be a first choice for viewing," Loughney said. "As viewers are increasingly defaulting to online video sources and relying on apps as a starting point, it’s essential to be among those that are installed on smart TV menus.”

The market for peripheral speakers that connect directly to smart TVs via Bluetooth, which still feels kind of newish, has already peaked, according to Hub Entertainment’s latest Evolution of the Smart TV Set report, which surveyed 2,504 U.S. consumers in May.

Hub said only 30% of U.S. smart TV owners have a smart speaker device connected to their set, “down significantly from 2021.” 

As this graphic from Hub's report shows, smart speaker penetration hasn’t really moved all that much in three years (although voice remote usage does seem to be on the uptake).

Globally, the “smart speaker” market is led and defined by Amazon’s Alexa and Google Voice-powered gadgets. But vendors including Roku and Vizio moved aggressively into a sub category of the market four years ago with peripheral speaker devices designed to be connected directly to smart TVs via Bluetooth.

And it’s that latter category we're kicking the tires on here — the Hub survey, smallish as it is, indicates these devices haven't reached mass appeal and that’s a bit counterintuitive, based on other survey results.  

With 47% of survey respondents saying they use their smart TVs to stream music (up from 27% in 2020), it would seem these Dolby 5.1-capable gadgets would have captured greater market demand by now. 

Overall, the report said smart TV penetration is closing in, but hasn’t arrived yet, upon saturation of the U.S. market, with 74% of homes now equipped with such a device, up from 61% in three years.

Sixty-four percent of those homes use their smart TV to stream video, up from 47% in 2020. 

Hub also said that 40% of U.S. smart TV's are controlled by the Roku operating system — a leading market-share statistic that hasn’t changed much over the past several years.

The research company said that “overall familiarity” with runner-up brand Amazon Fire TV is about two-thirds of that of Roku.

While recent tallies have suggested that Americans are spending more than ever on subscription streaming, one just completed survey says they're suddenly using fewer apps. 

According to Hub Entertainment Research’s latest annual “Best Bundle” survey of 1,603 adult broadband-subscribing TV watchers in the U.S., the average number of TV sources respondents reported using dropped for the first time ever, declining appreciably from 7.4 in 2022 to 6.4 in 2023.  

Not so surprisingly in an economy with record job growth, a resurgent stock market and declining inflation — but strangely marked by headlines every day that we're about to careen into recession — the biggest U.S. subscription streaming platforms are reporting declines in user scale. 

And consumers are suddenly “stacking” fewer SVOD services. 

Notably, while usage of free ad-supported streaming and ad-supported video-on-demand platforms surged in the last few years, Hub found the number of FAST and AVOD platforms used by American homes has largely remained flat with 2022. 

Mark Loughney, a senior consultant, who led the survey, suggested the production disruption caused by the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike could sustain the downward arc found in the survey. 

“If the ongoing writers strike persists long enough to significantly disrupt content pipelines, the value proposition of most services won’t be attractive enough to entice subscribers to return any time soon,” Loughney said. “It could be two years or longer to determine whether the decline in the first quarter was a momentary pause in the growth of the SVOD ecosystem or a permanent reset.”

The good days are over, and it's all going to suck from this point on. 

OK, that is a little too dark. But what can we say, Hub Entertainment Research's latest annual Best Bundle report -- not to mention the soft interior defense of the Los Angeles Lakers Wednesday night -- has put Next TV in a dour mood. 

According to Hub, which polled 1,603 U.S. adult streaming consumers in March and April, the number of TV sources used per person dropped for the first time in the annual' report's history, from 7.4 in 2022 to 6.4 now. 

As numerous other similar navel-gazing studies have concluded, FAST usage isn't declining. In fact, Hub found that it's up-ticked a little lately.

Rather, inflation-conscious consumers are not only cutting the cord on pay TV, they're now "de-stacking" (Hub's term) subscription streaming services.

Only 27% of consumers said they plan to add a subscription streaming service in the next six months vs. 33% last year, according to the survey.

And significantly more consumers reported using none of the five biggest U.S. SVOD services, relative to a year ago. 

“Booms don’t last forever, and inflation and economic worries may have finally slowed the roll of consumers looking to stack traditional and streaming subscription TV services,” said David Tice, senior consultant to Hub and co-author of the study. “However, FASTs have maintained their momentum this year;  in a time of economic uncertainty, ‘free’ is a powerful differentiator.”

Placing this all at the feet of the demand side is probably too simplistic. The major SVOD suppliers -- at least those attached to big media companies -- have engaged in a major pivot, led by Warner Bros. Discovery, drastically cutting losses on direct-to-consumer streaming at the expense of platform growth and scale. 

There's less content on the major SVOD services these days. And the prices are higher. As a result, more folks are churning out. Fewer are signing up. 

On Wednesday, Disney reported a 26% year-over-year first-quarter decline in DTC EBITDA losses to $659 billion, but also revealed a loss of 3.4 million streaming subscriptions globally for the quarter. 

Meanwhile, resembling the confounding nuance of the broader economy, U.S. subscription streaming companies are making more money on SVOD -- 22% more last year, according to research released last week by Omdia. 

And as Hub itself confirms, U.S. consumers may be subscribing to fewer streaming services ... but they're not streaming less. 

In fact, the percentage of U.S. consumers who identify themselves as "streaming only" is larger than ever. 

As streamers race to add commercials to their services, a new survey by Hub Entertainment Research finds that subscribers think the number of ads they’re seeing is much more reasonable than live TV or traditional on-demand programming.

In the study, 61% of subscribers to Warner Bros. Discovery’s Discovery Plus called the number of ads reasonable. Just 23% said the number of ads were unreasonable.

With HBO Max, also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, 53% called the number of ads reasonable, with 25% labeling the number of commercials on the service unreasonable.

Among other services in the study, 46% of Peacock subscribers, 44% of Paramount Plus subscribers and 43% of Hulu subscribers called the number of ads they see reasonable.

Those are all still better than generic Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television (FAST) channels, with 37% of FAST viewers calling the ad load reasonable and 12% describing it as unreasonable.

Only 22% of respondents said the number of ads on live TV was reasonable, with 45% calling that ad load unreasonable.

The survey didn’t include the two newest major entries into the AVOD sweepstakes, Netflix and Disney Plus, both of which are promising light ad loads.

The light ad loads are not just a benefit for viewers. They also help advertisers, according to the study. The services with the most “reasonable” number of ads also scored highest when subscribers were asked how much attention they paid to ads during shows. For Discovery Plus and HBO Max, 37% of viewers said they paid complete attention to the ads, followed by Hulu, Paramount Plus, on demand programming and Peacock. Scoring lowest in terms of attention were live TV, with 42% of viewers saying they paid no attention to the commercials they see, and FAST channels.

“A better ad experience makes for stronger ad engagement,” Hub said. “Overall viewing enjoyment is closely linked with ad attention, and ads and ad breaks that are shorter are more likely to keep viewers engaged.”

Shorter ad breaks were the top thing subscribers said would get them to pay attention to ads, followed closely by earning rewards for watching, shorter ad lengths and running single ads in a break.

“The industry seems to have finally solved the mystery of how to get consumers to accept ads in TV — and it was as simple as offering a less onerous ad experience and paired with a price break to boot,” Hub principal Peter Fondulas said. “Now that Netflix and Disney Plus have jumped on the ad-supported bandwagon, the question is whether and when the remaining ad-free only holdouts will join in.”

Hub surveyed 3,001 U.S. consumers aged 14 to 74 who watch at least one hour of TV per week. The survey was conducted in November. ■

The conventional wisdom is that consumers tend to use the operating system powering their smart TV, and that HDMI-connected streaming media players (SMPs) are going away. 

But according to the latest Hub Entertainment Research survey data, the discussion isn't so absolute. 

Hub, which surveyed 2,517 U.S. consumers in August for its “Streaming TV: Built-In vs Plugged-In?” report, found that 83% of American homes have connected a TV to the internet. And among those homes, 44% use both their smart TV OS and and SMP to stream video. 

Notably, consumer streaming behavior is pretty similar, regardless as to what type of device they're using to connect. 

Slightly more SMP users prefer to use the homepage of the OS to search for content -- perhaps suggesting that dongles and hockey pucks are a little more up-to-date. 

And slightly more smart TV consumers use the native buttons on their remote to shortcut to various services. This perhaps suggests that smart TV users are a little less streaming literate? 

In any event, the differences are ... slight.

“The question of ‘built-in vs plugged-in’ is surprisingly revealed in this study to be ‘it doesn’t really matter.’ Whether people are using a smart TV or a streaming media player, their habits are very similar,” said David Tice, senior consultant to Hub and co-author of the study.

“In the short term, both devices are going to co-exist – streaming media players are a long way from being replaced by smart TVs, and can’t be ignored,” he added.

Among the 74% of U.S. TV households who own a smart TV, 88% of them use the native TVOS in that device to stream video. 

And according to Hub Entertainment Research, among that latter group, 56% use Samsung's Tizen OS. 

Roku (44%) ranks second, followed by LG's webOS (38%), Amazon Fire TV (29%),  Android TV (28%) and Vizio SmartCast (21%). 

This data seems to undermine Roku's year-old marketing claim that it's the No. 1 provider of smart TV OS in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. (That assertion is based on units-shipped data.)

In emailing out this Q3 excerpt from its "Quarterly Connected Home Tracker" Tuesday morning, Hub didn't cite its methodology or regional focus. But the research company says it interviews 5,204 U.S. consumers age 16-74 for its annual "connected home" report. 

Notably, many smart TV homes appear to be using more than one TVOS. This suggests that many TV households have multiple smart TVs, and the consumers in them watch whatever TVOS powers that particular set. 

Also worth noting: As smart TV proliferation grows, the native software operating systems provided by TV manufacturers themselves continue to expand. 

As it is in Europe, Samsung has quietly emerged as a dominant gatekeeper to the connected home. This comes after the Korean consumer electronics maker learned a hard lesson with smart phones, having sold hundreds of millions of devices globally, only to watch Google -- the maker of the Android software that powers most of these devices -- recoup most of the monetization. 

Live TV delivered by linear pay TV services continues to decline as a dominant "default source" for video watching in the U.S., with Netflix nipping at its heels. 

But what surprised us about the latest video usage data report from Hub Entertainment Research is how high Hulu places in a ranking of "default sources" for American TV watching -- what is the first source viewers turn to when they fire up the ol' flat screen?

Live traditional pay TV still ranks No. 1, with 28% of the 1,600 U.S. adult TV watchers polled by Hub in August reporting it as their default source. Netflix ranks second at 23%, but it has largely stagnated in that position, Hub said. The digital video recorder still ranks third at 8%. 

Hulu ranks fourth at 6%, ahead of not only Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus and HBO Max, but also viewing via over-the-air antenna and vMVPDs. 

As Hub elegantly shows, live pay TV viewing has declined markedly as a go-to viewing source, with nearly half the market reporting it as its default as recently as 2016. 

Netflix, meanwhile, has only increased its share from about 15% to 23% over that span. 

Virtual pay TV viewing is also stagnating -- even as live TV from linear pay TV sources has declined from 34% of the market listing it as its default source in 2019 to a current level of 28%, Hub's survey share listing vMVPDs as its default source has held steady at only around 5%. 

Of course, as is usually the case in any analysis of video consumption, age is a huge factor.

Only 8% of adults 55 and older list Netflix as their default viewing source vs. 38% for those age 18-34. 

But 50% of adults 55-plus list live linear pay TV as their default source vs. only 12% for 18-34-year olds. 

Finally, live linear pay TV remains the most "essential" viewing source for those polled in Hub's "Decoding the Default" reports, with 37% of those polled saying it would be the last service they cancelled. 

“At a time when the typical TV consumer uses an average of 7.4 different sources of TV content, simple penetration of a service in the marketplace is no longer a reliable measure of long term service success,” said Peter Fondulas, Principal at Hub and co-author of the report. “A much better predictor is how much consumers engage with each service they have — and in particular, which they consider their TV viewing home base.”

The percentage of U.S. TV watchers who say they use a free, ad-supported streaming service like Roku Channel, Pluto TV or Freevee ticked up 9 points to 55% in the first five months of 2022, according to a survey of 3,004 U.S. consumers conducted by Hub Entertainment Research.

Meanwhile, the percentage of those who report using a partially ad-supported tier of a subscription streaming service, including Peacock, Hulu or HBO Max, ticked up four points to 42% over that same span.

Hub's "TV Advertising: Fact vs. Fiction" hammers away at an increasingly tired talking point -- that we are in an era in which bundling a critical mass of ad-free subscription services is approaching three figures -- and the price of the traditional cable bundle -- consumers are willing to watch a few ads to save their bottom lines.

"With reasonable ad loads, more relevant targeting, and a quid-pro quo agreement (watch ads, pay less), the industry seems finally to have an answer to the question that has dogged it for years: how to get consumers to accept TV advertising,” said Peter Fondulas, principal at Hub and co-author of the study.

Whether there's enough total revenue in advanced advertising to support this notion for all the SVOD, AVOD, FAST and vMVPD services that need it to be true? Debatable. 

But Hub's report suggests that users of ad-subsidized subscription services get nearly as much -- or in some cases, more -- value out of partial-ad tiers. 

Generally speaking, users of subscription streaming services with ads believe their ad loads are "reasonable."

So what's a reasonable amount of advertising? Generally, five or fewer commercials per hourlong show, with each ad load spanning no more than 30 seconds.

The share of U.S. TV homes that use their smart TV to stream video rose from 47% in 2020 to a current level of 62%, according to a survey of 2,526 U.S. consumers conducted by Hub Entertainment Research in May. 

Hub’s Evolution of the TV Set 2022 report also found that the share of U.S. TV homes with a smart TV rose to 74% from 61% over that same two-year span. 

It’s well-understood at this point that large numbers of TV consumers globally adopted the streaming habit during the quarantine portion of the ongoing pandemic. 

But with streaming companies like Netflix attributing, at least partly, their recent growth deceleration to a more sudden supply-chain-related slowdown in global smart TV shipments, it might have been more interesting for Hub to reveal what has happened in the last 12 months as opposed to the last two years. 

So it goes.

Hub also found that use of integrated voice control and smart speakers is way up over the last 24 months. ■ 

Also, streaming music is the No. 1 “non-TV” application performed on smart TVs, according to Hub. ▪️

The average American home consumes entertainment -- streaming video, music, podcasts, etc. -- from nearly 13 different sources, and among those, music streaming giant Spotify is listed as being "most essential."

This is according to Hub Entertainment Research's seminal "Battle Royale" study, which surveyed 3,014 U.S. consumers ages 16-74.

Among those polled, 75% ranked Spotify as a "must have" service vs. "nice to have." 

YouTube was listed as "must have" by 69% of respondents, while Netflix ranked third at 68% and was the only subscription video service ranked in Hub's top seven. 

Among all U.S. homes, 6.2 of the 12.5 entertainment services used, on average, were ranked as "must have." 

The number of sources -- and must have sources -- was higher for consumers age 35 and younger, as well as households with kids. 

Notably, among consumers polled who subscribe to Amazon Prime and use only Prime Video as an Amazon entertainment source, only 45% listed Amazon overall as a "must have" entertainment source. 

But indicating the churn-busting benefits of service bundling, that number shoots up to 64% when Amazon's music and gaming services are also included. 

Netflix and chill, people, please. Subscription streaming is still a viable business, albeit one that is facing some saturation issues in its biggest market. 

The percentage of U.S. consumers subscribing to at least one subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service is up 12% since the end of 2020, according to new data published by Hub Entertainment Research. 

And while the proportion of U.S. consumers subscribing to Netflix began to flatten out toward the second half of 2021 in Hub's findings, Netflix penetration is still 9 points higher in 2022 than it was at the start of 2021.

Half of U.S. consumers now subscribe to one of the "Big Five" SVOD services: Netflix,  Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney Plus and HBO Max. That's up 10% since the end of 2020, as well. 

“At some point, a service as widely penetrated as Netflix has only so much room left to grow," said Peter Fondulas, principal at Hub and co-author of the study. "In our view, it would be a grave mistake to take the Netflix experience as a sign that streaming TV services are on the verge of decline, as some analysts have suggested. The lure of buzzworthy exclusive content, and the sheer convenience of on-demand viewing, are two powerful forces that should keep these services growing at least for the near term.”

Meanwhile, U.S. subscriptions to linear pay TV were down 5% since the end of 2020, but vMVPD penetration ticked up 5%.

And the percentage of American consumers using ad-supported services was up 10 points to 60%. 

Overall, Americans report using far more video "sources" than ever, combining over-the-air antenna, pay TV, SVOD and AVOD platforms. 

On average, U.S. consumers are tapping 7.4 video sources vs. just 5.7 at the end of 2020, according to Hub. 

Hub polled 1,600 adult Americans in this "Best Bundle" survey. 

Reed Hastings has said on numerous occasions that his company's biggest competition doesn't come from HBO Max or Disney Plus or any other subscription streaming service as much as it does other consumer pastimes, notably video gaming. 

According to the latest Hub Entertainment Research report, the Netflix co-CEO is right. 

The share of leisure time spent by American consumers watching movies and TV shows declined 5% from 2020 - 2021, and was down a whopping 11% from 2019 -2021. Meanwhile, the share of time consumed playing video games was up 4% from 2020-2021.

How could that be, when other research suggests that folks are watching more TV than ever before? Well, Hub is only measuring time spent on leisure activities ... and its assumption seems to be that folks are spending the pandemic era doing more leisure activity in general -- the overall pie is expanding. 

Hub said it conducted its study among 2,179 U.S. consumers aged 13-74 back in December.

As you might expect, younger consumers are driving the phenomena. The 13-24 cohort spends only 13% of its time watching "TV," while those age 35 and older throw 45% of their leisure time at the activity.

Notable also is the time younger consumers spend watching "non-premium" online video. Consumers age 13-24 spend almost as much time watching content on TikTok and other online video platforms than they do "premium" TV.

Also, 51% of the 13-24 cohort said they're spending less time watching TV because of "other screen options" vs. only 19% for consumers 35 and older.

Targeted ads make shows on television more enjoyable, according to a new study from Hub Entertainment Research.

In a survey, 60% of viewers who thought they saw commercials that were customized for them said they were highly satisfied with the programming. Similarly, when they saw ads based on their search history, 56% said they were highly satisfied.

Other commercial break features viewers liked included having a countdown clock running during the ads and having the ads shown before a show begins.

“There is still a lot of work to be done on ad targeting and customization in the TV space, particularly with streamers, but the common trope that ‘consumers don't like ads’ is not correct,” said Jon Giegengack, founder and principal at Hub.

The survey was part of the first wave of Hub’s TV Advertising: Face vs. Fiction study. It was conducted in June among 3,001 U.S. consumers age 14-74 who watch at least 1 hour of TV per week. 

As Comcast/NBCUniversal are finding out the hard way with their struggling Peacock service, it's hits that drive subscriptions.

According to a new Hub Entertainment Research survey of 1,604 adult U.S. broadband users, 40% of them said they signed up for a subscription streaming service in order to watch one specific coveted movie or series. That number is up from 34% when Hub conducted its Conquering Content survey in 2020.  

Here's the really interesting part: Among those consumers who signed up just to watch one show, 70% of them stuck with the SVOD service after they finished watching the series or movie.

Other Notable Morsels from Hub's Survey

Usage of ad-supported streaming services including Pluto TV, Roku Channel, Tubi and IMDb TV was up 11% from 2020, with a majority of consumers (53%) saying they "sometimes" watch content on one of these platforms. 

Notably, Hub said that 46% of those who sometimes watch these ad-supported services do so with no specific show in mind, suggesting that AVOD and FAST channels are now being used to sate the channel-surfing impulses of former pay TV grid hoppers. 

Also notable: 71%  of respondents said they discovered the show(s) they're currently into on a streaming service, up from 68% last year and just 52% in 2017. 

Also, after peaking in 2020, Netflix has fallen back as the destination for consumers' "recently discovered favorite show," with 35% saying they're watching it on the No. 1 streaming service vs. 38% last year. 

A streaming service is the first programming source that 55% of American TV watchers go to when they first turn on their set, vs. just 39% for pay TV, according to a new survey from Hub Entertainment Research. 

The company's latest iteration in its annual "Decoding the Default" study polled 1,616 U.S. consumers age 16-74, who watch at least an hour of TV each week. In 2020, Hub found that 50% of TV watchers defaulted to streaming vs. 42% for pay TV.

In the 2019 version of the report, the two distribution paradigms were split evenly at 47%.

Among streaming video services, meanwhile, Netflix has lost ground among major OTT platforms. Last year, for example, 23% of respondents said Netflix was their default service. 

That percentage dropped to just 20% for Netflix this year, with 15% now claiming that either Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney Plus or HBO Max is their default. 

Notably, it's younger consumers who seem to be changing their "default" allegiances. In 2020, 39% of survey respondents age 18-34 called Netflix their default service, but only 31% of that cohort said the same thing in 2021.

Meanwhile, the percentages for older age groups IDing Netflix as their default remained largely flat. 

A small but significant percentage of people who watched NBCUniversal’s Tokyo Olympics watched some of the coverage on Peacock, and most of them will continue to watch the streaming service, according to a new survey from Hub Entertainment Research.

About 12% of people who watched the Olympics said they watched on Peacock, according to Hub. Peacock only viewers accounted for 6% of all Olympic viewers and they accounted for almost 10% of NBCU’s total cumulative audience for the games.

Hub said that 75% of those who watched the Olympics on Peacock were already subscribers, with 25% saying they had never sampled Peacock before or were lapsed subscribers.

Also Read: Peacock To Exclusively Stream Notre Dame Home Opener

Based on what it acknowledged was a small sample size, Hub said most of the Peacock Olympic viewers who were not current subscribers before the Olympics said they will continue to watch Peacock after the end of the games.

NBCU is counting on sports, including last season's Stanley Cup playoffs, WWE wrestling, soccer and NFL football to help boost Peacock. Peacock is also likely to get a big share of programming from the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics.

On its second quarter earnings call, Comcast disclosed that Peacock had gotten 54 million signups, and that the Olympics had help lift its monthly active users by 50% to 20 million. Peacock lost $363 million in the quarter on revenues of $122 million.

“NBCUniversal has a long history of using the Olympics as a media lab to experiment with new services, and this year was no different with their promotion of Peacock as an Olympic coverage destination,” said David Tice, senior consultant to Hub and co-author of the study. “The findings from our survey indicate this strategy brought NBCU new users to sample Peacock; perhaps just as important are our findings that those who watched on Peacock have a more positive attitude towards Olympic advertisers and sponsors. It appears to be a win-win for NBCU and its clients.”

The Hub survey found that 50% of Peacock Olympic viewers said they thought the commercials that aired during coverage added to their enjoyment of the games. That compares to 3% of all NBCU Olympic viewers.

Peacock viewers were more likely to say the ads they saw during the Games by a 71% to 55% margin compared to overall Olympic viewers.

Hub Entertainment Research’s Tokyo Olympics study surveyed 1,016 US consumers about their viewing of the Olympics as well as their attitudes towards the Games and its sponsors. The interviews were done between Aug. 4 and Aug. 8, 2021. The survey was funded by Hub, independent of NBCUniversal or any Olympic sponsor or organization. 

Only 28% of U.S. video consumers who don't subscribe to HBO Max say the service's new discounted $9.99 tier with limited ads will entice them to sign up. 

This nugget comes courtesy of Hub Entertainment Research, which said it polled 1,607 "U.S. TV viewers" age 16-74 in June for its "Monetization of Video" report. This was shortly after WarnerMedia launched the new HBO Max tier, which discounts the service from the ad-free price of $14.99.

Is $5 a month enough of an enticement? Well, HBO Max's growth is currently outpacing its rivals in the U.S.

WarnerMedia said that it added 2.8 million domestic subscribers across HBO Max and linear HBO channels in the second quarter--a period in which Netflix lost around 400,000 customers in the U.S. and Canada. It's also been reported that Disney Plus' Q2 domestic growth numbers will likely come in well under 1 million when the conglomerate reports second-quarter earnings in August. 

How much of HBO Max's relatively fruitful Q2 growth could be attributed to the late addition of the discounted tier is hard to discern--during AT&T's second-quarter earnings call last week, the company said only that it had a "successful" launch of the  new tier. 

Notably, the $9.99-a-month tier seems to be acting as an effective subscriber retention tool, with Hub reporting that nearly 40% of current HBO Max customers will likely switch over to the new tier. 

“It’s true that some TV viewers will do almost anything, including paying a premium, to avoid ads. But there are many who will choose ad-supported TV if it saves money or lets them watch a show they can’t watch somewhere else,” said Hub's Jon Giegengack, one of the study authors. “Tiered plans give viewers control of their experience. Whether they watch with ads or not, everyone is getting an experience they chose, and not one chosen for them.”  

About 23% of U.S. TV viewers have used a co-viewing app this year, up from 20% in the quarantine year of 2020, according to Hub Entertainment Research. 

The finding, based on a survey of 2,519 U.S. consumers, suggests the long-anticipated convergence of social media and simple, passive act of watching TV might have finally arrived, in a format more simplistic than previously imagined. 

Not surprisingly, the behavior skews young--41% of viewers age 16-34 say they’ve used a co-viewing app, compared with 23% of those age 35-54 and only 3% of those 55 or older, Hub says. 

According to the survey, Amazon Watch Party is the most popular co-viewing app, but it also skews older and male. Viewers age 35-54 (57%) are more likely to use AWP than co-viewers age 16-34 (37%), and men (52%) more likely to use AWP than women (31%). 

The usage behavior, however, is favored by the young, with the 16-34 cohort being by far the biggest supporter of these apps. 

“Co-viewing apps and services are becoming increasingly important, no doubt driven in part by recent pandemic experiences,” said David Tice, senior consultant to Hub and co-author of the study. “Content distributors and streaming services that help enable this behavior will increase their appeal to young adults overall, and in particular young men. This is an important consideration with the advent of fully or partially ad-supported streaming services and the desirability of these key demos to advertisers.”

Avoiding commercials isn’t the most important thing to TV viewers according to a new study that finds consumers interested in enduring ads even on Netflix if they get a lower price for the service.

Hub Entertainment Research’s TV Advertising: Fact vs. Fiction report finds that on 17% of consumers said they can’t tolerate advertising and would never sign up for a TV service that has commercials. A whopping 57% said they can tolerate some ads and another 26% said that if the content is interesting, it doesn’t matter whether or not there are ads.

Consumers are even more tolerant of ads if they get a discount on the price of a subscription service, with 58% saying that if they got a $4 or $5 discount, they’d choose an ad-supported option, while 47% said they’d rather avoid ads.

Netflix has long said it would never sell advertising, making this new survey particularly interesting.

Hub found that if Netflix created a tier with pre-roll ads that costs $5 less per month, 46% of Netflix subscribers said they’d switch to the ad supported service. If there were a tier with pre-roll and mid-roll ads for $5 less per month, 39% would sign up.

Among the viewers who said they can’t tolerate ads, 73% said they subscribed to ad-free Netflix, 57% got Amazon Prime Video and 57% said they used a free streaming service with ads.

For the group that said content mattered most, 58% subscribe to Netflix, 44% to Prime Video and 52% use free ad-supported streaming services.

Hub found that 95% of viewers watch both ad free and at least one ad supported channels.

Hub asked viewers who recently watched a show with commercials to tell them how they felt about the ad load. Among viewers who thought they saw 5 spots or fewer, 47% thought the number was reasonable and 32% thought it was unreasonable. When viewers said they saw six to 10 spots, 33% called it reasonable and 34% said it was unreasonable. When they said they saw 11 or more commercials, just 27% thought it was reasonable and 49% called it unreasonable.

Among the viewers who said they saw five or fewer spots, 35% said they paid attention to all or most of the ad, while just 23% of those who saw 11 or more spots said they paid attention.

“What’s clear from these findings is that what matters to consumers is not whether ads are included in the content they watch, but how ads are delivered,” said Mark Loughney, Hub senior consultant and co-author of the study. “Even consumers who say they’re categorically opposed to ads will use an ad-supported platform if the price and ad delivery are right.”

Hub’s TV Advertising: Fact Vs. Fiction study is based on interviews conducted among 3,0001 US consumers ages 14-74, who watch at least one hour of TV per week. The data was collected in June 2021.

U.S. consumers are tapping their video from an average of 5.7 sources, up from 4.8 in 2020, according to the latest survey from research company Hub. 

The current average is almost twice as high as the 2019 figure, which was 3.7

These sources include everything from pay TV services to over-the-air antennas to subscription video on-demand streaming platforms. The proliferation of the latter, however, seems to be driving the growth. 

Hub also said that the percentage of households using two or more of the top subscription streaming services is now at 59%, up from 51% in 2020. Hub defines "top SVOD" as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney Plus or or HBO Max.

And 40% of homes subscribe to three or more top-five SVOD services vs. 28% last year.

And it's not just SVOD use that's increasing--48% of U.S. households report regularly using an AVOD platform like Roku Channel or IMDb TV vs. 40% in 2020.

The addition of newer services like HBO Max, Peacock, Discovery Plus and Paramount Plus doesn't appear to be a zero-sum game, with 72% of consumers who say they plan to add subscription streaming services in the next six months indicating no concurrent plans to ditch an incumbent service. 

Not surprisingly, the pay TV bundle appears to be the bill targeted for extinction in many homes. Hub found that surveyed homes subscribing to linear pay TV dropped seven percentage points to 60% in the last year, while streaming homes ticked up two points to 79%.

Overall, 94% of U.S. consumers surveyed by Hub indicated that were at least "somewhat" satisfied with their current combination of services. 

Notably, to a point, the more video sources consumers tapped, the more satisfaction they reported. 

With smart TVs now found in 70% of U.S. homes, the two OTT platforms that power the majority of those sets are more dominant than ever. 

According to Hub Entertainment Research’s third annual “Connected Home” report, 57% of U.S. TV households now have a TV powered by either Roku or Amazon Fire TV, vs. just 51% at the end of the first quarter of last year. Forty percent of homes have Roku, either through a peripheral device like a player, smart speaker or streaming stick, or via a smart TV powered by the Roku OS. Roku’s infiltration into the U.S stood at only 35% as of the end of the first quarter of last year, and 30% in Q1 2019 

Twenty-nine percent of homes have Amazon Fire TV vs. 26% in Q1 2020. (Some homes have TVs powered by both operating systems.)

The increased proliferation of the top two OTT platforms comes amid markedly increased smart TV adoption—52% of TVs in the U.S. are now smart TVs vs. 45% at the end of Q1 2020. Two out of five of those sets are powered by either Roku or Amazon Fire TV. 

Fifty-six percent of those smart TV homes use their TV to stream video at least once a month vs. 48% a year ago. 

Altogether, 77% of U.S. TV homes reported streaming video in the first quarter vs. 74% a year ago. 

“The wider adoption of smart TVs and replacement of non-smart TVs turns up the pressure on connected devices like streaming boxes, streaming sticks, and video game consoles,” said David Tice, senior consultant to Hub and co-author of the study. “This ‘eliminating of the middleman’ will have a direct impact on how future revenue is split on advanced TV businesses like streaming, interactive shopping, and addressable advertising.”

Hub said it surveyed 5,000 U.S. consumers in February and March. 

Hub Entertainment Research has piled on its latest round of survey-based data asking the essential question, has video streaming increased in the pandemic?

Why yes it has. 

But credit the Boston-based research company for going a little deeper in its latest report and illustrating just how much the streaming habit has accentuated over the one-year course of the lengthy social distancing period—for example, 77% of 3,008 U.S. consumers ages 14-77 say they’re now watching “significantly more” TV than they were before the pandemic vs. only 69% when Hub conducted a similar poll in July of last year. 

And the movement has been away from linear television. Only 62% of respondents said they subscribe to a traditional linear pay TV service vs. 72% in July 2020. (Over the same nine-month frame, 21% said they have a vMVPD vs. 17% earlier.)

Uptake for all the major SVOD services is up, but none more than for HBO Max, with 31% of respondents saying they now carry the $14.99-a-month service vs. just 15% in July.

The bad news for the most expensive SVOD service: HBO Max is mentioned by survey respondents as the first service they'll quit once the pandemic finally ends, with 17% signaling their intention to do so. Hulu (15%) and Discovery Plus (14%) are also listed among the more expendable. 

And of course, AVOD's growth during the pandemic is well known, but Hub charts it here elegantly. Right before the pandemic, in February 2020, 34% of survey respondents described themselves as users of free ad-supported streaming services. That figure grew to 37% in July. It now stands at 58%. 

Original content is a big driver of viewing and new subscriber sign ups for streaming services, according to a new report from Hub Entertainment Research.

Netflix, already the leader in streaming, is seen as the service with the best original shows, according to Hub’s survey. But new shows and movies on HBO Max and Disney Plus are getting consumers to sign up to those services.

The research backs up the industry's notion that spending on original productions attracts subscribers, while acquired content can help with engagement and retention. 

Hub found that streaming services are going out of their way to brand content as original and that viewers say that label makes them more interested in watching a show, especially among younger people.

Among 16 to 34 year olds, 70% said that seeing the term “original” made them more interested in a show, with 25% saying it made them a lot more interested. Among people age 35 and up, 53% said the original tag made them more interested, with 15% saying it made them a lot more interested.

Of the titles mentioned as reasons why people subscribed to a streaming service, Disney Plus’ The Mandalorian was No. 1 and HBO Max’s Wonder Woman 1984 was No. 2. 

Netflix had five of the top 10, with Stranger Things, The Crown, Outlander (actually a Starz original for first-run episodes), Cobra Kai and Tiger King; Disney had three between The Mandalorian and Hamilton on Disney Plus and The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu; HBO Max had two with Wonder Woman and Game of Thrones.

“So far, Netflix has not only withstood the threats posed by new entrants in the ever-intensifying streaming wars—it has thrived,” said Peter Fondulas, principal at Hub and co-author of the study. “But WarnerMedia’s and Disney’s moves to prioritize streaming distribution are already reaping rewards and have the potential to significantly disrupt the TV service pecking order. What remains to be seen is whether this streaming-first strategy will transform HBO Max and Disney Plus into Netflix replacements, or whether they’ll remain as Netflix supplements.”

The study was based on responses from 1,606 consumers with broadband who watch at least one hour of TV per week. It was conducted during February.

HBO Max is getting a boost from WarnerMedia’s decision to release its 2021 film slate simultaneously in both theaters and on the streaming service, according to new research from Hub Entertainment.

According to Hub, HBO Max increased its share of new streaming video signups to 13% in December--when the company announced its plans to stream Wonder Woman 1984--from 7% in November.

Hub said that among those who added HBO Max in December, 19% said they signed up to watch movies. Just 3% said that in November. And 12% specifically said they signed up to see "theatrical" movies.

Also Read: HBO Max Latin America Launches Set for June

Hub said that Disney Plus’ share of new signups was flat in December at 21%, which is still higher than HBO Max. 

Disney in December held an event for analysts spelling out its plans to roll out tons of new original series for Disney Plus.

Also Read: Disney Plus Subs Rise to 94.9 Million as Profit Drops

The word got through to subscribers. According to Hub, 13% of people who signed up for Disney Plus said they wanted to watch exclusive franchise content. (December was the first month Hub asked that question.) At the same time 12% said they wanted to watch movies, up from 2% Disney Plus carried Pixar’s Soul in December.

“It of course remains to be seen whether Warner’s or Disney’s December decisions are precursors of a permanent shift in how movie and franchise content is distributed, or whether theaters will once again reign supreme as the exclusive home for first-run films," Hub said. “But while industry analysts wait for that to play out, pandemic-fatigued Americans—spending more time than ever at home—are already happily endorsing this new streaming normal.”

In another sign of the big changes taking place in the television business, 50% of consumers said the first place they go when they want to watch TV is a streaming service, according to a new study from Hub Entertainment Research.

A year ago in a similar study, 47% of consumers said they first went to either a streaming on-demand service like Netflix, a free service like Pluto TV or a virtual MVPD like YouTube TV.  

Pay TV was the default service for 42% of consumers surveyed, down from 47% a year ago.

The pull of on demand streaming is so strong that 23% of cited Netflix as their first choice versus 30% who said live TV via a traditional pay TV service.

The trend is especially strong among young consumers, with just 14% of those in the 18-34 demographic calling pay TV their first choice, down from 21% a year ago.

But Hub noted that pay TV won’t die easy. When consumers were asked if they had to drop all of their TV services but one, the top answer with 35% was live TV from a traditional pay TV distributors, topping Netflix with 32%. But among people who picked Netflix as their first stop, 61% said they’d keep Netflix. Among those who called live TV their default, 56% said that would be the one to keep if they could only keep one.

According to the Hub survey the top reason for selecting a service as their first choice is because they have the viewers favorite show. They also want it to make it simple to find something to watch and the ability to watch live shows.

“We’ve seen a significant boost in streaming TV service subscriptions since the start of the pandemic in March of this year,” said Peter Fondulas, principal at Hub and co-author of the study. “But perhaps more significant than the simple increase in online subscriptions is the profound shift in consumers’ viewing behaviors generally. Instead of reaching first for the cable remote when it comes time to watch TV, more and more consumers are defining TV viewing, first and foremost, as viewing on streaming services. Whether that shift persists once the pandemic crisis has passed is, of course, the billion-dollar question.”

Hub’s Decoding the Default study was conducted in August  among 1,600 U.S.  consumers with broadband, age 16-74, who watch at least one hour of TV per week.

Consumers may claim they don’t care which network carries the shows they want to watch, but branding still plays a key -- if slightly subliminal -- role in the choices they make, according to Hub Entertainment Research.

Citing info from past studies, Hub principals Jon Giegengack and Peter Fondulas told an audience at the Media Insights and Engagement Conference in Miami on Tuesday (Feb. 6) that 41% of consumers they surveyed said network branding doesn’t matter. But a deeper dive proved the opposite. The information was gleaned from online surveys of between 1,774 and 2,214 individuals aged 16-74 who watch at least 5 hours of TV per week.  

According to Hub, when given the chance to build their own bundle from a list of 52 networks participants proved extremely selective. For example, when told that money was no object, they chose just 19 of the 52 networks, with the four major broadcast networks, Netflix, HBO and ESPN topping the list. And when pricing information for each network was included, that number dropped further to just 9 of the 52 networks available, with Netflix on top followed by the four broadcasters, HBO and Amazon Video.

Branding played an even bigger role when participants were given descriptions of hypothetical TV shows across several genres, with interest varying dramatically depending on which network the show was on, Hub said. According to the study, Netflix generated the highest interest in a competitive reality show the researcher tested, even though the brand is not known for that genre. About 47% of participants were extremely or very interested in watching the reality show on Netflix, compared to 30% if it was on The Travel Channel.

Hub’s conclusion was that as consumers are faced with an ongoing deluge of content, it is critical that distributors give them access to brands they care about without forcing them to sift through the ones they don’t care about. The company cited Amazon Channels as one distributor that is following that line.

“These findings suggest that viewers have developed clear expectations for the kinds of viewing experience different brands—networks and SVODs—will deliver,” Giegengack said in a statement. “This new brand paradigm has wide reaching implications for brand marketing and distribution.”

Authenticated TV everywhere services are driving higher customer satisfaction for pay TV providers and serving as an effective-churn buster, but awareness issues — specifically consumer misconceptions about extra costs — have stymied the multiscreen offerings.

Those are the key findings from Hub Entertainment Research’s annual TVE study, based on a survey of 1,202 U.S. TV viewers with broadband service.

On a positive note, 73% of respondents said TVE drives higher satisfaction, and 84% of frequent TVE users said they plan to stick with their current provider for the next year, vs. 66% of consumers who don’t use the authenticated platform.

Despite that, 53% of users said that not only have they never used TV everywhere, but they weren’t even aware they could access it. And though TVE platforms are part of a monthly subscription, more than half of respondents (54%) assumed there were extra costs.