Why Do People Stream? Must-Watch Shows, Not Cord-Cutting Cost Savings
A new report from research firm MoffettNathanson hammers yet another nail into the coffin of the traditional pay-TV bundle, finding that a full 80% of US households use video-streaming services, and 38% have ditched pay TV and rely on streaming alone, up from 26% a year ago.
The research firm, a subsidiary of Silicon Valley Bank, shared this assessment in its latest quarterly report on subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services, in which it drew on 22,839 responses between January and March.
But while streaming overall continues its ascent, MoffettNathanson found that growth has stalled at the two biggest providers—Netflix and Amazon Prime Video—which reached 56% and 42% of US households in Q1 2022, respectively. (Each company recently raised subscription rates, Netflix for the third time in three years, but the report doesn’t discuss possible effects of those hikes). Hulu ranked third at 33% and Disney+ came in fourth at 26%.
Instead, smaller services saw bigger increases, led by Peacock and Paramount+. Calling the former a “rocket ship,” MoffettNathanson found that its household share soared to 23% since its 2020 launch (with help from its free-with-ads tier), while the latter exhibited similarly steep growth from a later start about a year ago to 14%.
HBO Max had increased at a gentler pace to reach 19% while Apple TV+ and Discovery+ grew only slightly to 10% and 9% of households, respectively.
The survey also looked into the issue of who pays to watch and who does not. Many viewers still get a streaming service for free as part of a promotional deal—Apple TV+, which until last summer came free for a year with a new Apple device, still has 37% watching at no charge.
Others use somebody else’s password, with 16% of
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