Study: Americans Now Spend $47 Per Month on Streaming Services

A J.D. Power study claims that Americans now spend $47 per month, on average, for streaming services, up 24 percent from the $38 per month spent before the pandemic.

“In an effort to get a sense to how the streaming landscape has changed [since April 2020], J.D. Power has conducted a follow-up pulse survey of 1,745 U.S. adults, delving into their viewing preferences, usability challenges, and future plans for using these subscription-based services,” the study explains.

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According to the study, viewers in the U.S. increased their streaming subscriptions to an average of four streaming providers in December 2020; the number was three in April 2020. The average household spends $47 per month on streaming services, up from $38 in April. And Netflix remains the largest streaming brand, though four of the top five streaming services grew share since then.

The top five services are now Netflix, with 85 percent share, Amazon Prime Video (65 percent), Hulu (56 percent), Disney+ (47 percent), and YouTube TV (20 percent). HBO Max is in sixth place, with 22 percent share, and Apple TV+ brings up the rear among the major services with 14 percent share, ahead of Peacock, CBS All Access, Showtime, STARZ, and others.

The study also notes that Disney’s The Mandalorian was the most-watched show in December with 7.3 percent share. Grey’s Anatomy (Netflix, Hulu), The Crown (Netflix), Shameless (Showtime), and The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix) were the remaining top five.

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Conversation 18 comments

  • crunchyfrog

    26 January, 2021 - 9:08 am

    <p>What confuses me about Amazon Prime Video is that it's a part of Amazon's Prime membership so how did AJ.D sort out the costs based on that?</p>

  • arthemis

    26 January, 2021 - 9:31 am

    <p>Took an offer from Disney+ thanks to Mandalorian but the only other streaming service i would want now is Youtube TV, omg what a plethora of channels to choose from but no such luck, US only (living in EU).</p>

  • j5

    Premium Member
    26 January, 2021 - 9:33 am

    <p>That sounds about right. I spend almost double that in my home of 5 between wife and I and our teenagers..</p><p><br></p><p>We cut the cord a while ago. And immediately starting saving a lot of money a month. However, over the past few years we've subscribed to more streaming services so everyone can watch the content they like. It originally started with just Amazon Prime and Hulu. Now we have Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Locast, AMC+, Discovery+, and Crunchroll. Still less expensive than paying Xfinity for these channels and then paying for a TON of channels that we wouldn't watch. Oh yeah and the extra fees and regular price hikes. </p><p><br></p><p>We're now talking about just dropping certain subscriptions when certain shows aren't on and then re-upping when they come back on.</p>

    • jwpear

      Premium Member
      26 January, 2021 - 5:22 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#610019">In reply to j5:</a></em></blockquote><p>The ability to add or drop these things is what I like about them. Our problem is there always seems to be someone in our family that has a must have on them. I'm pretty much the only one willing to drop something. I add the Sports+ package on Sling during the college football season and then drop it after. My wife wanted to add Hallmark during the Christmas season about three years ago. We've had it since. Our teens always have something they can't give up.</p>

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    26 January, 2021 - 10:33 am

    <p>We use Amazon Prime now-and-then, but that's it. I think we've probably watched about 2 hours of Prime in January.</p>

  • glenn8878

    26 January, 2021 - 11:10 am

    <p>I consider Amazon Prime Video is free with delivery. Apple needs to buy up a network or two. It's service is a waste of subscription fees. I'm pretty sure the Hulu and Disney+ bundle is worth it, but the problem is Disney keeps removing content due to Woke like Peter Pan and Dumbo. How ridiculous. </p>

  • kdjones74

    Premium Member
    26 January, 2021 - 12:19 pm

    <p>Why is HBO Max considered sixth place, when it has a higher share than YouTube TV (which is considered fifth)?</p>

  • Cdorf

    Premium Member
    26 January, 2021 - 1:03 pm

    <p>I cant wait until the consolidation comes. There is no way all these things survive and its creating a monster. </p>

  • hellcatm

    26 January, 2021 - 1:33 pm

    <p>Steaming is the new cable. Prices will keep going out and more services will keep popping up and then people will push back against streaming services like they are with cable. I wish cable services would just let us pick our channels at a decent fee, but they're greedy and won't do that.</p>

  • crunchyfrog

    26 January, 2021 - 3:27 pm

    <p>The promise of streaming was supposed to be a revolution which let to the expression, "Cutting the cable". Now it's turning into another steaming pile with too many fragmented services that all want 'another' monthly fee of varying proportions. </p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      26 January, 2021 - 4:51 pm

      <p><a href="https://www.thurrott.com/music-videos/246679/study-americans-now-spend-47-per-month-on-streaming-services#610121&quot; target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em>In reply to crunchyfrog:</em></a></p><p>Are you laboring under the illusion that streaming services would have made mental vegetation cheaper for the vegetables?</p>

    • bbennett40

      27 January, 2021 - 9:25 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#610121">In reply to crunchyfrog:</a></em></blockquote><p>The HUGE difference is that you can pick and choose what parts of that pile you wish to squish in. Where as before, you took the whole pile or none of the pile. This is still a step in the right direction. IMHO I pay much more than the avg amount listed above but is still much less than the amount I was paying before. </p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    26 January, 2021 - 4:49 pm

    <p>1st thought was <strong><em>is that all?</em></strong> Then I thought that'd be averaged across people rather than households.</p><p>My kids have finally got me hooked on British TV comedy game shows on Youtube. That plus NPR and live streams with ads allows me to get by with only a Netflix subscription.</p>

  • Patrick3D

    26 January, 2021 - 5:40 pm

    <p>Depending on the value of Amazon Prime, I could do without the video service myself, I'm right around $40/month. $50 if I include Patreon. Of course, there's also the value of Thurrot.com. I don't even subscribe to anything mainstream like Netflix or HBO. 10 years now without cable TV, it's as dead to me as having a landline phone.</p>

  • red.radar

    Premium Member
    26 January, 2021 - 7:53 pm

    <p>If you cut the cable package. 47bucks a month still represents pretty good savings and you get access to a very large library of content. </p><p><br></p><p>live sports is even getting better but there are some stragglers </p>

  • winbookxl2

    Premium Member
    26 January, 2021 - 11:34 pm

    <p>I pay for Dish which is nearly $150 per month and probably another 50$ per month on the rest of the streaming services because I have certain family members who only understand a cable remote and not seeking content across different apps. Thankfully my 4-year dish "price lock" ends in a couple of months and adios with the Dish. </p>

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