BOSTON—To keep up with all the TV content out in the world today, users are relying on more TV sources than ever before. According to the latest report from Hub Entertainment Research, the average consumer uses 5.7 different sources of TV content.

The sources that consumers are using range from traditional pay-TV, streaming services and over-the-air reception through an antenna. The 5.7 average that Hub reports for 2021 is nearly one service higher than in 2020 (4.8) and nearly double what it was prior to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019 (3.7).

Streaming, unsurprisingly, is a big reason for the rise in the average. Nearly eight in 10 users now use a streaming TV service, per Hub. That number is 19 percentage points higher than those who have a traditional pay-TV subscription. Traditional pay-TV has actually dropped by seven percentage points since 2020.

However, there was only a two percentage point increase in consumers saying they started using a streaming service compared to last year. What is driving the growing gap between streaming and pay-TV is the increase in use of multiple streaming services and greater adoption of free, ad-supported services.

More than half (59%) of all TV consumers say they use two or more of the top SVODs (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+ or HBO Max). That is up eight points from 2020. Use of AVOD services (Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Peacock) is also up eight points to 48% of consumers.

Some consumers are expecting to continue to add to their available services. One in five (21%) say they plan to sign up for a new service in the next six months. Majority of those planning to add will do so without cutting another service. Those with four or more services are actually more likely to add another subscription without replacing anything, per Hub.

In terms of satisfaction, about 52% of consumers says their bundle of services meet their needs “very well,” while 42% said “somewhat well” and just 6% said “not at all well.”

For more information, visit Hub’s website. 

LONDON—We are in the middle of a content explosion not only in what is available to consumers, but how much industry players are spending to stay competitive. According to a recent study from Ampere Analysis, spending on TV, film and sports content has increased from $100 billion in 2008 to $165 billion in 2018, with nearly $50 billion in growth occurring in the last five years.

While most new players in the TV market are SVoD players, Ampere found that they are not where much of this growth is coming from. Rather its traditional TV companies that are increasing their spending on content to ensure they stay competitive against the likes of streamers. Broadcasters have increased their proportion of revenue they devote to content and rights expenditure from an average of 41% in 2013 to 50% by the end of 2019. Had broadcasters remained at their 2013 strategy of spending, the total spending would have increased $23 billion rather than $49 billion.

While streamers have also increased their spending budgets from 2013 ($2 billion) to 2018 ($19 billion), $111 billion of the $165 billion spent were from broadcast groups.

Most of streamers spending in the past was based on content acquisition—Netflix, Hulu and Amazon spent more than $13 billion on content acquisition in 2018—but original programming is becoming a bigger part of their strategies. Netflix, which spent $1.5 billion on original content in 2018, has ordered 300 brand new series.

Contributing to this need for original content is that studios are deciding to retain the rights to their original content rather than license it out to independent streaming services in the past.

“Where SVoD has led in content spend, others have followed and this has resulted in a positive feedback loop, stoking the fires of competition for content and driving up spending,” said Daniel Gadher, research manager at Ampere. “But the nature of competition is soon set to change as the big studio groups pursue their own services. This will create opportunities for local and global indie producers as Netflix and other streaming services seek to replace content retracted by existing content partners.”