• by Karlene Lukovitz , August 28, 2023

Proliferating reduced-price, ad-supported video-on-demand (AVODs) — and free, ad-supported services (FASTs) in particular — are taking viewing share from ad-free, premium subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services.

SVODs’ share of streaming minutes fell to 49% in May, from 53% in second-half 2021, according to a data analysis in a State of Play report from Gracenote, Nielsen’s content solutions unit.

There are now nearly 40,000 individual FAST channels, streaming providers and aggregators (up from about 36,000 in 2021), and about 2.3 million video titles available in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Mexico and Germany alone (up from 1.7 million in 2021), the analysis found.

Because most FAST channels feature programming that first aired on linear channels — versus SVODs’ focus on self-produced and acquired originals — time spent with acquired “library” content is rising steadily. In May, 60% of time spent streaming in the U.S. was on programming that first aired on linear channels — up 5.2% from October 2022, according to the report.

For example, last year, 18 of the 25 most-watched streaming programs by U.S. women ages 18 to 34 were back episodes of classic shows. “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Gilmore Girls” led the pack, beating out “Stranger Things” and many others and driving 77 billion minutes of viewing, or 73% of total combined minutes for the top 25.

According to Nielsen, three FASTs — The Roku Channel, Pluto TV and Tubi—account for 3.3% of total U.S. use, and more per-month viewing than all but the two top cable networks. Nielsen’s The Gauge recently reported that streaming as a whole reached 38.7% of total TV viewing in July, and broadcast and cable viewing fell below 50% for the first time.

Streaming services available to users in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Mexico and Germany now offer about 2.3 million video titles, up from 1.7 million in 2021, according to a data analysis by Gracenote, Nielsen’s content solutions unit.

The sheer volume of available content — combined with the growing amount of overlap, as services pull back on content exclusivity and more popular shows and movies appear in multiple streaming catalogs — is overwhelming streaming viewers, says Gracenote, which is promoting personalization and user experience improvement as solutions for streaming services.

In June, streaming users reported spending 10 minutes and 30 seconds, on average, searching for something to watch — down from 11:16 in October 2022, but up from 7:24 in March 2019.

Further, 20% of those interviewed said they end up doing something else when they can't find something to watch when they start streaming.