• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, February 10, 2016

Streaming on-demand services now reach a majority of U.S homes.

About 57% of U.S. households subscribe to over-the-top services from Netflix, Amazon Prime or Hulu, and nearly half of all adults stream from those services on a monthly basis, according to a new survey of 1,200 homes in the U.S. from Leichtman Research Group in its 14th annual study on on-demand usage.
 
What’s more, these services are co-existing with on-demand choices from cable and satellite operators.

Interestingly, many of these homes also use other on-demand services, including those from a multichannel video provider. In total, 81% of U.S. homes have a DVR, subscribe to Netflix or use their multichannel provider’s VOD service, LRG found. Many homes overlap on-demand options — about 30% of households use two of those VOD services, and 13% rely on all choices.

Netflix streaming is becoming a baseline activity for many homes: 37% of U.S. homes stream Netflix each week, up from 8% in 2010, LRG reported. Also, 83% of Netflix streamers are watching it on a TV set. Streaming is still most popular among younger users, with 77% of those 18 to 24 streaming monthly, compared to 63% in the 25 to 44 range, and 50% in the 45 to 54 group. 

The availability of streaming services isn’t detracting from cable VOD usage. In fact, 51% of all cable subscribers used VOD in the past month, up from 4% in 2010, LRG found.

Overall, SVOD spending in U.S. broadband homes is up nearly 67% since 2012, according to research from Parks Associates. That firm said the average monthly spend on SVOD in U.S. homes was $6.19 in 2015, up from $3.71 in 2012. The report also pointed out that those consumers spend less than $1 a month buying digital video, suggesting the subscription model is indeed the one in demand.