Advertising-supported and advertising-free subscription services are “overwhelmingly similar in distribution in terms of age, ethnicity, gender and income,” according to Antenna, a subscription data and analytics company.
For example, among popular streamers (Hulu, HBO Max, Paramount+, Discovery+, and Peacock) Antenna says that among the largest targeted age group -- those 50 years and older -- 43.7% are buying ad-supported streaming platforms and 41.5% are buying ad-free streaming.
The 18-30 and 31-40 age segments were also similar, with the 18-30 group coming in at 19.8% for ad-supported services and 20% for ad-free services. For the 31-40 segment, the percentage was 20.0% for ad-supported services and 20.1% for ad-free services.
Other segments such as ethnicity and income are also similar between the ad-subscription and ad-free groups. For example, 33.9% of subscribers with household income of under $50,000 bought ad-supported plans; 31.9% of those homes of the same income are ad-free subscribers.
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There are larger variations between the female- and male-skewing audience. Females are more likely to buy ad-free (51.2%) than ad-supported (46.6%) services, while males go in the other direction -- 48.8% for ad-free and 53.4% for ad-supported.
Antenna's data comes from raw transactions from a panel of five million U.S. consumers who have opted-in, consented to anonymously contribute purchase information for market research purposes. Raw data is then weighted for demographic and behavioral segments.
Hardly surprising as the average streaming home subscribes to about three services and often there is at least one of each kind in the mix. More important is the amount of viewing that takes place and here, the older segment may begin to support the ad services more strongly, just as it does for "linear TV".