Business Stream Fatigue? Americans Spent 23% Less on Streaming Services in 2024, Study Finds - The average U.S. citizen spent $42.38 per month on streaming services in 2024, down from $55.04 per month a year ago

https://www.thewrap.com/americans-spent-23-percent-less-on-streaming-services-in-2024

In 2024, the average American grew tired of dedicating so much of their budget to streaming, according to one survey.

The average U.S. citizen spent $42.38 on streaming services each month — which comes out to $508.56 over the course of a full year — according to a December report from Reviews, an internet, streaming, and mobile-focused research organization.

That represents a 23% decline from last year, when Reviews found the average American spent $55.o4 each month on services like Netflix, Disney+, and Max. Reviews’ 2024 report is based on a survey of 1,000 Americans.

What’s behind the big drop in streaming spending?

One reason, according to the report, is that 27.8% of Americans are experiencing “streaming fatigue,” which Reviews defines as “that exact feeling of being overwhelmed with the increasing number of streaming apps.” The report did not say how many of those SVOD-weary citizens ultimately ditched a subscription or two based on their fatigue.



Another potential reason Americans spent less on streaming this year is because many of them are spending more on cable and satellite. The average American spent $89.29 per month — or more than $1,000 per year — on cable/satellite in 2024, up 11% from last year. Nearly 55% of Americans have a cable or satellite subscription, according to Reviews; it is not much of a stretch to believe many of them dropped a streaming service to offset rising TV costs.

A few other takeaways from the report, which you can also see in the graphic above:

The average American has two streaming services and watches nearly four hours of content each day.

And 26.53% of Americans share at least one streaming subscription with their friends or extended family.

The decline in streaming spending comes as ad-supported streaming hit a record high in 2024. A record 43% of streaming subscriptions were ad-supported by the end of Q3, according to Antenna, a market research firm. And between July and September, 56% of new streaming subscriptions were ad-supported — indicating Americans are opting for the cheaper option, even if they have to sit through a few commercials.

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Alternatively, it looks like normies are already getting tired of having to pay for too many apps, for the same "goyslop of the month" series. It's like the old timey "paid channels" from cable TV, back in the '90s.

Either way, it's time to set sail to the high seas.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

The handful of series that gain my interest I probably want to pirate to have a copy anyways. And even then I try not to get too invested in anything that isn't easily left as "ended this season ignore the last two" or already finished. Holywoods ability to fuck up a series is pretty spectacular at this point. Everyone I know is griping about recycled ideas and the lack of innovation and the lack of reasonably budgeted shows that don't take 3 years between seasons.

The fact that Netflix basically runs six episodes as a "season" (extended pilot) is not a good practice. You run ONE pilot episode to see if people like the concept as a full series (I remember watching a TV special about failed pilots years and years ago--one that stuck out to me was a kid reincarnating as a toy dinosaur or something).

Since most of these are churn-and-burn anyway, you'd think that when it's clear that the series is DOA they'd get some sort of semi-conclusion instead of cliffhangers.

Streaming WAS the innovation and people liked it but then they kept trying to get ways to force it to be more and more profitable. You're ALWAYS going to hit a wall for how much a successful business can make before you start having to play dumb games to tweak things. Stocks were a mistake. Line must always go up and having to placate people who usually don't know anything about the business model because they're the shareholders is so fucking dumb and has killed more businesses now than people just not wanting a particular service. And of course if you need to downsize it's the same as DEATH.

I honestly think that with rising costs and shrinking selection people are turning into piracy. Streaming in particular is a weird setup where "supply" is basically unlimited, yet somehow multiple streaming services don't result in a lower cost for the consumer; rather instead of paying $x for Netflix as you did in 2014, you're now paying $x times six for Netflix and everything else.

 

[Sargon's wife's son]

I haven't paid for audio books books anime the only thing I really pay for is video games because on packing pirated video games is really annoying

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

At least with Amazon Prime you get free shipping as well so there's a reason to sign up for it in addition to TV shows and I don't know if they still do it but I know at one point if you used Comcast for Internet you got Peacock for free with ads, so something at least. Maybe if the companies that owned these streaming services offered more benefits to signing up for them then you'd see more people actually using them. As it stands if I'm going to get ads in my streaming service unless I pay double why pay at all? Why not use free streaming services with ads in them already like Tubi or Pluto TV?

GOG also gives free games to Prime members. Not sure what the drawbacks are, but hey free games.

 

[Ahriman]

I haven't paid for audio books books anime the only thing I really pay for is video games because on packing pirated video games is really annoying

Same here. My Steam account is convenient enough to keep me buying vidya every once in a while... Steam flash sales used to be better, 5+ years ago.

But also,

https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesagencycouncil/2023/11/17/the-gaming-industry-a-behemoth-with-unprecedented-global-reach

The vidya industry is much, much larger than Kikewood. Them shooting themselves in the foot by pushing out "goyslop of the month" that normies are rejecting, only exacerbates the problem.

 

[VargReallyDidNothingWrong]

Most of the shit coming out nowadays isn't worth the time you'd spend watching it let alone paying money for it (that you earn by spending more of your time).

Who the fuck is watching 4 hours of streamshit a day every day? Get a fucking life.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Same here. My Steam account is convenient enough to keep me buying vidya every once in a while... Steam flash sales used to be better, 5+ years ago.

Steam is not perfect, not by a long shot, but it's one of the most successful partly because the movie studios (and frankly, other video game services) never stopped to ask themselves if piracy was a service problem. Even the companies that sit on a mountain of IPs have decided to screw over their customers by splitting content into multiple services. It's not like Disney + and Hulu will merge into one, or Warner Bros. Discovery merging their pre-merger streaming services.

 

[Nitro!]

My parents have over 4 streaming services, and they sit through commercials on services they pay for like dafuk man.

"Noooooooo, don't mute the commercials, I like them! I'm beInG iNfOrmEd!"

I've stopped trying to help people who can't cut the umbilical cord from the media corps. You hand them a Plex web interface and it's "too hard". You show them how much money they're wasting and it's "not a big deal". You show them that everything is available and they complain "there's no live news or sports". Some people just don't want help.

 

[Vyse Inglebard]

IF BUYING SOMETHING ≠ OWNING IT, THEN PIRACY ≠ THEFT.

 

[Kiwi Lime Pie]

In 2024, the average American grew tired of dedicating so much of their budget to streaming, according to one survey.

The article could have stopped after this opening sentence. It summaries the situation perfectly without the need for additional commentary...

Who the fuck has money for that with inflation being so high?

This was going to be my point. With 20% inflation in the US over the past four years, people have way less buying power. Since then, the number of streaming service providers has increased as each makes its content exclusive to its service only and charges more and more for the ability to watch it on demand.

Even if neither of these were true, people still tend to dislike being nickled and dimed to death. This is exactly what the streaming services are doing in their quest to make as much money as possible.

 

[BulkForceFive]

Streaming services have just replicated cable:
-what's on your package isn't what you want
-what you want isn't on your package
-to get everything you want you have to subscribe to multiple packages
-constant ads for Yunday Gaytron electric cars and Dr Schmorbs Penis Embiggener cream

 

[Quijibo69]

Streaming services is for normies too lazy to pirate.

 

[repentance]

No shit, the whole point of them was that they didn't have ads and now they all have ads anyway. Plus all the content is spread over 50 different subscription services that all cost like $60 a month. Who the fuck has money for that with inflation being so high?

Yep. It's become like cable where you used to have to subscribe to a shitload of different packages to cover all the types of content you wanted. The point of subscribing to streaming services was to get away from that. Plus most of them have dramatically increased their prices as well.

 

[Conan]

Yeah, but YouTube is arguably gatekept almost as much as TV is with the algorithm and I'd like to see where these "subject hobbyists" come from. Looking at cooking shows specifically (both real cooking and "spectacle") is rife with extreme faggotry and talentless bozos (those said talentless bozos can produce unintentional comedy, e.g. Cooking with Jack). You'll never have something like Good Eats or Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on YouTube. I could go on for the other examples but you get my point.

good eats is a great scripted tv show and an example of one that honestly is a hobby autist doing whatever the fuck he wants in the style he wants, which is a style that has only become more common on YT.
DDD is a travel show (and is very good). You can find 16 quadrillion travel shows that lack the host but instead of 45 minutes of edited scenes at 3 locations and jokes,
you can have 45 minutes of a flat, uninteresting guy explaining every dish at a restaurant in a country that interests you.

I guess the major difference for me is TV is "interesting host with a cursory look at the content" and YT is "host is unimportant, here is 45 unedited minutes of the thing you want to see".

TV networks will continue with cooking shows as vehicles for personalities and script writers but for the section of viewers that more or less just want a recipe, YT has the leg up.

"Subject hobbyist" applies more to the garage tinkerer and the amateur chemist. History channel has this godawful show, forged in fire I think it's called. 50 minutes of contest bullshit.
I dont want to see that, I want to see swords and not faggy judges and boomers talking bullshit.
You want to see a sperg talk about swords for 45 minutes? heres 15 you tube channels of HEMA nerds talking about their favorite Oakeshott type.
Want to see a guy do a cool chemical experiment for 65 minutes straight with no shitty story lines, side plots, or bullshit? You can find it on youtube.
Scripted shows remain the domain of TV, otherwise they cannot compete on a dollar or interest basis with internet autists who can work a camera and sony vega.

I will sperg now: I hate contest format shows. Iron Chef (the Japanese one) is one I can stomach. I cannot stand the faux drama, the annoying editing, the shitty musical stings of modern ones.
This is a problem with American TV, I have watched British contest shows that were far more informative and entertaining.

 

[Pokemon Conquistador]

With my internet bill being 90 bucks/mo, I can't afford a streaming service. I would be perfectly happy to watch films with a non-excessive number of ads. That's the thing. Imagine if the future hadn't turned out retarded and the average person could stream a show whenever they wanted with the same number of ads they showed on TV back in the 1970s. I bet a lot of people would go for that. I'd pick that over pirating if the choice were available to me, because I like the convenience of having something made available without my having to hunt for it or store it on my limited disc space. Companies got greedy though, and they'd rather sit on their IP like a dragon on a golden horde than let the average pleb view it without a subscription or rental fee. And so the average pleb turns to piracy and the media companies get nothing.

(Some Roku channels do come close to doing it right, but they still show excessive ads and show the same 7 ads in a row. This is the future. Things are supposed to get better, not worse.)

 

[smartypants302]

At least with Amazon Prime you get free shipping....

You get free shipping a day or two later without signing up to Amazon prime on most items.

 

[SBG]

Think a lot of services are learning to just aim at certain audiences and largely ignore others, so you don't get a lot of Korean shows on Hulu the way you do with Netflix. So you pretty much just find a particular services that actually make shows you're into and can safely ignore all the others.

If you do find a random show is now on a service you don't use you can then just cycle through services, pausing one while you try another to keep the bills lower.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

I will sperg now: I hate contest format shows. Iron Chef (the Japanese one) is one I can stomach. I cannot stand the faux drama, the annoying editing, the shitty musical stings of modern ones.

That grocery one Guy Fieri hosts is pretty good. Can't go wrong with anything from Flavortown, though. Guy's the Steve Irwin of Food Network.

 

[Bonesjones]

Yeah, but YouTube is arguably gatekept almost as much as TV is with the algorithm and I'd like to see where these "subject hobbyists" come from. Looking at cooking shows specifically (both real cooking and "spectacle") is rife with extreme faggotry and talentless bozos (those said talentless bozos can produce unintentional comedy, e.g. Cooking with Jack). You'll never have something like Good Eats or Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on YouTube. I could go on for the other examples but you get my point.

Sounds like a skill issue, you've got way more variety in cooking shows alone whether you want instructional, educational, or entertainment. Good Eats would have been a youtube show if it came out 20 years later considering Alton Brown was a videographer who wanted better cooking shows and decided to make it himself.

Instructional channels like Food Wishes, Preppy Kitchen, Kenji alt Lopez

Educational you've got Tasting History, the Townsends, America's Top Kitchen

Entertainment there's things like Epicurious, Weird History Food

That's all just off the top of my head alone. Long gone are the days of watching a giant English tranny speed run recipes. It was funny watching the larger places like Bon Apetite destroy themselves from the inside by jealous minorities because they lacked any charisma.

 

[The Lawgiver]

Streaming services added ads and basically cable payment plans to their setup, yeah no shit people aren't signing up for them anymore. You're literally getting the same thing as cable but worse now.
Seriously I miss when the "on demand" section for comcast was actually about as robust as netflix ended up becoming before they neutered it around the time netflix's streaming started up. I weirdlyr emember finding alot more to watch on there than I ever did on netflix even if it cycled out every month or so and sometimes didn't have full episode libraries of shows.

 

[pikachudidnothingwrong]

The moronic masses are finally staring to realize that they gave up cable for 10 different mini cable services, at probably close to twice the price.. at least. Only paying for what you watch indeed. lol