New Survey: Streaming Services Reign Supreme with 51% of Americans Primarily Consuming TV Digitally

– Nearly half of consumers respond to ads they see on streaming services – 
PLUS: Over 1-in-6 who use paid streaming services have 5+ subscriptions

DENVER, CO (March 21, 2023)— Adtaxi, one of the nation’s fastest-growing digital marketing agencies, today announced the results of its 2023 TV & Video Streaming Survey. The findings were clear: Americans’ favor for streaming services has rapidly grown, surpassing cable and broadcast options. Across all gender, ages, and income levels, streaming is the number one viewing source adults turn to. Additionally, over half of the TV viewing is done digitally with roughly 1-in-5 adults (15%) consuming all their TV content digitally. 

“We are seeing consumers become more and more reliant on streaming services and turning their backs on broadcast and cable options,” said Adtaxi Director of Research, Murry Woronoff. “Our survey findings are supported by recent reports from Nielsen stating that streaming viewership has officially surpassed cable TV viewership. Platforms including Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu contributed to streaming capturing the largest share of viewership (35%) for the first time in July 2022.”

Among Adtaxi’s survey findings on streaming viewership: 

Default Source: 42% of adults turn to streaming services before cable (31%) and broadcast (11%). This includes 35% who default to streaming content via a TV set and 7% who default to a personal device. According to eMarketer, this trend is anticipated to continue with another 3.6 million U.S. homes (representing 8.8M people) expected to sever their ties with cable TV in 2023.

Device Decisions: When choosing how to watch TV and video content, the majority (66%) watch through their TV set – but not exclusively. Over the past 30 days, respondents also consumed TV via their smartphone (48%), laptop (33%), and tablet (23%). On average, Americans use 2 different devices to consume content. 

Streaming Service Subscriptions: At the start of 2023, 87% of U.S. adults said their household uses at least one paid streaming service, while 84% use a free service. The survey found that more than 1-in-6 Americans who use paid streaming services have 5 or more subscriptions. 

Ad-Response Rate: When it comes to advertising on streaming services nearly half of Americans (48%) respond to the ads they see. Consumers claimed they were most likely to interact with ads when the products were pertinent to their lives and needs. Findings from AudienceScan support this, as they state more viewers respond to streaming ads than ads delivered on TV, in their mailboxes, or on the radio

How Viewers Respond to Ads: On average, streamers who respond to ads do so in two or more ways. Over half (56%) go directly to the company’s website, over one-third (36%) look at the company’s social media, and nearly one-third (32%) take a company review into consideration. 

Streaming Without the Spending: When asked if consumers were willing to switch from paid ad-free subscriptions, to free ad-supported versions, 6-in-10 (60%) said they were likely to switch while 1-in-5 (22%) said they were very likely to switch. This comes as companies like Netflix, Warner, etc. are getting ready to unveil these options. 

“The findings of our 2023 TV & Video Streaming Survey are fascinating and important for digital marketers to understand and implement in their plans for the coming year,” said Chris Loretto, EVP of Adtaxi. “Utilizing digital streaming platforms will be key to capturing audiences with consumers reporting to prefer ads on streaming services over broadcast or cable. Additionally, ad-supported streaming will be in the spotlight this year as platforms like Netflix and Warner offer new ways to capture audiences.”

Methodology 

This survey was conducted online using Survey Monkey among a national sample of 1,056 adults spanning across U.S. geographic regions, income levels, gender and age. The survey was conducted on January 6th, 2023.

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About Adtaxi
Founded in 2010 within MediaNews Group, Adtaxi made its mark in programmatic advertising before expanding into search, social, and connected TV. Over time, Adtaxi has refined and perfected its holistic performance-based strategy, which became the foundation of Quantum, originally launched in 2015. Leveraging the power of people plus technology, Adtaxi’s innovative full-funnel methodology leverages a variety of tools and processes throughout the client lifecycle to drive omnichannel optimizations across channels to maximize performance and deliver superior value for advertisers. Adtaxi functions as a true partner with its clients, acting as a single point of contact and support through multi-platform campaign cycles. Find Adtaxi on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.