• by Wayne Friedman , June 26, 2020

While major premium streaming video services saw increases in usage in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and have fallen slightly since, some mid-level services --  Apple TV+, CBS All Access, HBO Now, and Showtime -- continue to show gains or remain steady.

A new study that analyzes the March, April and May periods finds that Apple TV+ grew to 19% in the month of May (from 15% in April and 11% in March) when respondents were asked which premium services they used. The research comes from Strategy Analytics.

CBS All Access also continues to see increases -- to 12% in May (from 9% in April and 7% in March). 

Others including HBO Now (transitioned now to HBO Max) and Showtime have maintained share numbers, with HBO Now at 13% in May (13% in April and 8% in March); Showtime, 7% in May (7% in April and 5% in March). Starz was at 5% in May (5% in April and 3% in March)

Bigger, more widely used and distributed services -- Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Disney+ -- all slipped over this period. Netflix was down 42% in May (from 50% in April), while Amazon Prime Video slipped to 40% in May (42% in April); Hulu declined 24% (from 30%) and Disney+ was down 18% (from 23%).

Strategy Analytics says the lifting of stay-at-home orders in recent weeks was a major reason for the declines.