Since the fourth quarter of 2020, the average number of video services in the United States and Canada increased from 6.9 to 8.75 - a 27% increase -, according to TiVo's “Q2 2021 Video Trends Report”. Of that number, respondents had an average of five paid platforms and 3.7 free services.
From the vast menu of choices the video service market has to offer, consumers gravitate toward services that suit their needs, interests and price points—choosing a few bundled together and skipping the rest. The combination of video services that is most common among today’s viewers is pay-TV service, short videos on YouTube and Netflix (45%), followed by pay-TV service, short videos on YouTube and Amazon Prime video (31%), and pay-TV service, Netflix and Amazon Prime video (30%).
Around 11% of respondents said they canceled a pay-TV service within the last six months. Of those, 73% cited price as a factor in their decision. Still, nearly 70% admitted they are not sure if they are actually saving money on entertainment. At the same time, just under 25% of respondents indicated they had cut or stopped subscribing to a paid streaming or live TV streaming service within the last six months.
On average, consumers spend $142.20 a month on Internet/video. Fifty-five percent of survey respondents are already at their spending limit: they either do not have room in their budget for any additional streaming services (30%) or they can only pay less than $10 per month for additional streaming services (25%). Thirty-one percent of survey respondents say that they can afford to pay more than $10 per month for additional streaming services.
When TiVo asked survey respondents which screen they used most often to watch various video service types, TV was the overwhelming favorite across the board, with smartphones being the favored second choice. In fact, 26% of respondents said they primarily use their smartphones to watch videos on vMVPDs, while 20% said they use their smartphones to watch AVOD content.