According to new research, the streaming market in the United States now includes no fewer than 275 subscription video on-demand services. While this seems like a staggering number, the cloudy nature of the streaming market makes it difficult to determine whether it is actually higher or lower than past years.
What You Need to Know
- There are now 275 active subscription services and 60 FAST platforms operating in the U.S.
- Services are increasingly combining paid subscriptions, ad-supported tiers, and free content.
- While the total number of standalone platforms may be dropping, the variety of access points has never been higher.
The latest data comes from Parks Associates, and points to 275 SVOD services now operating in the U.S. Of that 275, the research firm says there are 243 premium SVOD services.
Other notable takeaways from the research include the existence of 141 advertising-based video-on-demand (AVOD) services, 85 transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) services, 55 ad-supported SVOD services, 60 FAST platforms, 110 FAST channels, and eight virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs).
It is worth noting here that these are not all different services, as there are plenty of streaming services that cross category thresholds. As an example, streaming services offering both ad-free and ad-supported plans.
There is also an ever-increasing number of paid streaming services that are opting to offer free access to select content or services.
Is the Total Number of Services Declining? Maybe
While the headline number of 275 subscription services seems like a lot, it appears on paper to be lower than past years, hinting at an industry in decline.
Back in 2023, for example, research from Parks Associates pointed to 354 independent OTT services operating in the United States in 2022.
The problem here is when comparing OTT to the current market, as the market has changed so much that it is now almost impossible to draw an apples-to-apples comparison.
One of the major changes in the streaming industry since 2022 is consolidation. Whether this is different companies and services merging, or the phasing out of smaller standalone apps in an attempt to further a single premium user experience, the direction of travel now seems to be toward fewer services overall.
Of course, this is not the same as services reducing their overall streaming footprint. If anything, the opposite is true.
While the overall number of services appears to be declining, the variety of ways consumers can access a service (ad-free, with ads, and/or for free) is continually expanding.
A point perfectly highlighted by the latest Parks Associates research which shows categories increasingly overlapping as companies continually combine subscriptions, ads, and free content.
Due to this, whether there are fewer services is far less important than the fact there has never been more ways for consumers to access streamed content.
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