According to the newest TiVo Q4 2024 Video Trends Report, the entertainment industry is changing in significant ways. The main finding is that people are cutting back on streaming services, and while keeping the ones perceived as high-quality.
The report surveyed 4,490 adults (3,485 in the U.S. and 1,005 in Canada) aged 18 and older. It shows a clear shift in how people watch and pay for streaming and entertainment. One big sign of this change is that people are spending less on entertainment each month. In Q4 2024, average monthly spending dropped by almost $20 compared to the previous year, falling to $157.47. This is the first time spending has gone below $160 since before 2021. Spending had peaked at $189.38 in 2022, but hasn’t reached those heights since.
Along with this, the average number of services people use has also decreased, from 11.1 in Q4 2023 to 9.9 in Q4 2024. The report suggests that people are cutting back on both paid and free services. Another sign of this trend is that slightly more people now feel they have the “right number” of services, while fewer feel they have too many.
The reasons for canceling subscriptions are revealing. Among those who canceled a paid streaming service in the last six months, 17.0% said they weren’t using it enough, while 16.9% said it was because of price increases. This is different from past years, when price hikes were a bigger factor. This means people are being more careful about keeping only the services they actually use.
I was someone who had too many services but dropped a bunch, and only keep at most two at a time. I watch a show, then if I want to watch something else on a different service, I cancel a service and get the other. Streaming is still far better than cable thanks to the lack of contracts.
Even though people are using fewer services, the average time spent watching content each day stayed about the same at 4.5 hours. This means viewers are choosing better content on fewer platforms rather than watching less overall. Another sign of this shift is that people are becoming more okay with watching ads.
The report shows that ad tolerance increased slightly from 75.3% to 76.2% compared to last year, meaning more viewers are willing to watch ads if it means getting more content for less money. Additionally, many people (41.6%) said they prefer ads that are personalized to their interests, no matter what platform they’re using.
Interestingly, even as paid streaming subscriptions decline, traditional pay TV (like cable) is making a comeback. Fewer people said they plan to cancel their cable service, with a 2.0% drop compared to last year. This is likely because cable offers easy access to popular entertainment, especially live sports, which many streaming services don’t provide.
The report points out that sports fans are frustrated, with 58.0% saying they couldn’t watch certain games because they weren’t available on their subscribed services. Nearly half (49.0%) of viewers said this was annoying. This creates a big opportunity for providers who can bring together more sports content in one place.
The report itself is pretty interesting, but overall, the love of streaming is evening out. People are starting to be moderate in what they want, and many have stopped subscribing to services just because it might have what they want.
Source: Business Wire
