Streaming services are raising subscription prices to nudge viewers to choose advertising plans. While striving toward profitability amid rising content costs, streaming services have prioritized ad-supported tiers, which tend to generate more revenues per user than ad-free tiers.

• Ad-supported sign-ups are increasing. One-fourth of streaming sign-ups were ad-supported through H1 2023, up from about one-fifth in 2021, according to a June 2023 Antenna report. With Prime Video set to introduce advertising in 2024, ad-supported sign-ups will continue to increase.
• The likelihood that viewers will choose an ad tier varies by platform. Over two-thirds of the viewership on Peacock, Paramount+, and Hulu will be ad-supported next year, according to our inaugural US ad-supported streaming viewers forecast. But after avoiding ads for more than a decade, Netflix is taking a cautious approach to shifting viewers over.
• Hulu has the most ad-supported viewers among US streaming services. Although Peacock and Paramount+ have a greater portion of their viewers on ad plans, Hulu has the most ad-supported viewers because its overall audience is much larger than most streaming services’. We forecast about half of all ad-supported viewers will watch Hulu next year.
• Disney+ and Netflix are poised to grow their ad-supported viewers the most. Advertising is new to Disney+and Netflix, so they have fewer ad-supported viewers than subscription services like Peacock and Paramount+, which have always had advertising. But we expect Netflix and Disney+ to grow their ad-supported viewers substantially next year, with 69.7% and 45.1% increases, respectively.