• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, October 31, 2023

Amazon Prime Video continues to be the streaming service with the largest number of U.S. subscriptions — a status it reached last year, according to Parks Associates’ latest ranking, based on estimates from its streaming video tracker through September.

Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ and Max maintained their #2 through #5 rankings.

But Paramount+ took the #6 position, bumping ESPN+ down to #7. And Peacock rose one position to #8, bumping Apple TV+ down to #9.

In addition, Google’s YouTube Premium entered the top 10, bumping Starz off the list and marking the first time that all three tech giants with major streaming services — Amazon, Apple and Google — made the top 10.

The research firm also reports that 89% of broadband households now have at least one OTT service, that 41% have used an ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) service in the past 30 days, and that 29% subscribe to eight or more OTT subscriptions.

"The market for subscription services is saturated, and consumers continue to experiment with ad-supported services as they evaluate their budgets,” said Eric Sorenson, director of Parks’s streaming video tracker.

Parks 'tracking also confirms a continued shift toward free, ad-supported streaming services (FASTs) and AVOD plans as ad-free services’ prices rise, and growing trends toward bundling channels/services and forming creative distribution partnerships.