In news that shouldn’t surprise anyone, Americans are streaming a lot of television. In fact, 20% of all television viewing in America is now done via streaming, a percentage that has nearly doubled since 2018. This latest information comes courtesy of the Nielsen February Total Audience Report released earlier this week and was reported by Benzinga.
Also not surprisingly, the report noted that Netflix is still the clear winner when it comes to streaming television. More than 30% of streaming viewers watch Netflix, with YouTube next at 21% and Hulu at 12%. Amazon Prime gets another 8% of viewers.
Neilsen also showed found that just under half of streaming viewers pay for three or more streaming services. That number jumps to 60% of viewers subscribe to at least two services but drops to 10% who subscribe to four or more. While streaming is often seen as “the way millennials watch TV,” nearly 90% of people over 65 also who responded to this survey subscribe to at least one streaming service.
So what’s the takeaway? One, streaming continues to grow. Two, to say the television market is fragmented at the moment may be an understatement. And three, users are actually preferring ad-based video on demand services to traditional subscription plans like Netflix. Ironic in that one of the big selling points of early streaming over cable was the lack of ads.
