The number of U.S. households with two or more streaming services has been growing at a rapid pace over the past five years, according to Parks Associates.
The research firm’s latest consumer survey found that the percentage of households with multiple OTT subscriptions has increased by 130% since 2014 and that in 2019, 46% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to two or more services. That’s compared to 20% in 2014 and 33% in 2017.
"The number of OTT services available in the US increased by 140% in five years, giving consumers an unprecedented number of options to meet their video needs," said Steve Nason, senior analyst at Parks Associates, in a statement. "Most OTT households are anchored by one of the three major OTT services—Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video—but consumers are finding they can't fulfill all their interests through a single service. Many small and medium-sized services are building their brand and subscriber base by filling in these gaps in content."
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Parks said that overall adoption and awareness of OTT video services as a category is high, but awareness of any individual services is low, making it tougher for smaller services to keep pace with the scale, revenues and marketing efforts of larger players. The company’s research shows nearly three in 10 OTT services in the U.S. are on Amazon's Prime Video Channels aggregation platform, more than four times the rate from two years ago.
"Netflix can afford to license high-value content like ‘Seinfeld’ to supplement its original content, and Apple can buy commercial space during the Emmys and NFL games to promote its upcoming Apple TV+ service and its array of content and stars," Nason said. "By contrast, smaller OTT services are having to harness the power of a partnership with an aggregator, bundling or content partner, or marketing and promotion partner to boost awareness of their brand and offerings."