Sports fuel Q4 of 2024 US streaming surge. Findings show that streaming grew less than 1% in Q4 of 2024, but now it reaches 96%, or 125 million, US households, and the stacking of paid video streaming services remains at the same level. On average, US households subscribe to 4.1 paid video streaming services, which hasn't changed since the previous quarter. The market is currently relatively stable.

Worldpanel's EoD research reveals the following behaviors and outcomes within the Video on Demand (VoD) market between October and December 2024:

1. Paid, ad-free streaming (SVoD) has stopped its decline, while free, ad-supported streaming (FAST) declined in Q4 after a year of consecutive growth. For the first time in 2024, SVoD as a category grew (+2% q-o-q) rather than shrinking. Growth in the SVoD category was driven by ESPN+, Hulu, Peacock and Paramount+. Weekly FAST users, however, declined by 1% quarter-on-quarter.
2. Live events, not discounts, drive growth. Despite Cyber Monday discounts, paid ad-supported streaming grew only 1% in Q4. Sport is driving streaming growth in Q4, driving subscriptions to Prime Video, ESPN+, Netflix and Peacock.
3. Entertaining content is not enough to maintain platform dominance. The top 3 titles cited as most enjoyed in Q4 2024 include 'Yellowstone' (available on Peacock), followed by 'The Lincoln Lawyer' (Netflix) and 'The Penguin' (Max). However, these were not the biggest 'growers' in Q4. Prime Video, Paramount+ and Tubi saw the largest absolute subscriber growth in Q4.

Sport is driving streaming subscriptions, but there are concerns about viewer and subscriber loyalty. The fastest growing streaming services in Q4 were ESPN+ and Prime Video. Football (NFL) was the #3 most cited content driving subscriptions to Prime Video, which has invested in its NFL coverage in recent years. The #1 title driving acquisition for the service in the quarter was Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson on Netflix.

Streaming platforms are acquiring new subscribers through sports. It drives growth, but these subscriptions may not be sustainable over time. The subscriber base of sports-focused services typically flattens or declines after the football season. ESPN+'s subscriber base flattened in the first quarter of 2024, and Prime Video's subscriber base declined significantly. Although the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight in Q4'24 was the #1 title driving acquisition for Netflix in Q4, the overall subscriber base grew by only 1%. It was Netflix's first live sporting event, and while it was viral and successful, it didn't bring in many new subscribers, certainly less than expected.

More and more streaming platforms are investing in sports, implementing the change in strategy for the US market. It is not easy to invent new products and find new ways to grow in the saturated US market. Instead, established streaming services are looking to reduce churn, and sports can be an important factor in achieving these goals. Sports are seasonal and a good way to attract temporary subscribers and keep existing subscribers engaged with new content. There's also a chance that sports fans will stick around and enjoy other types of content, but generally we're not seeing that yet.

Platforms are now competing for sports rights. For example, Tubi bought the rights to stream the Super Bowl in 2025. With only 35% market share compared to Netflix's 62%, Tubi still has room to grow in a crowded market. We expect Tubi to see rapid user growth in Q1, but the long-term impact of its investment in the Super Bowl is unknown.

Free streaming slows its growth. FAST has typically seen consistent quarter-on-quarter growth, but for the first time its size shrank by 1% in Q4'24. In the US, 57% of households access a FAST service in a typical week, compared to 64% for paid ad-supported and 72% for paid ad-free.

The decline in FAST was largely driven by Freevee, Crackle and Samsung TV Plus. Freevee, which has been quietly removed from the Prime Video platform but still has its own app in the App Store, fell by only 2%. This suggests that Freevee's user base is confused about whether they are watching Freevee or Prime Video and are still seeking out Freevee content. Consumer perception of who owns what content is an ongoing challenge for streaming services. Freevee, formerly IMDbTV and now fully owned by Prime Video, is a great example of how consumer perception is creating this confusion in the streaming market.

Today, streamers are becoming increasingly demanding of the free services they use. They are holding them to the standards of content quality and quantity of a paid service, and as was shown in Q4, streamers are willing to stop using a service, even a free one, if it doesn't meet their content needs. Tubi and similar services investing in live sports are growing at a fairly steady pace and competing more closely with the content available on paid streaming. This creates a challenging landscape for FAST, which is expected to spend similar amounts on content to its paid streaming competitors without the additional revenue from paid subscriptions.

Sports streaming is becoming a decisive factor in the market. The situation needs time to settle. Platforms need to allocate sports rights among themselves, and viewers (subscribers) need time to change their habits and choose streaming over cable, which has been their primary choice for decades. But sports streaming looks promising and could become an important source of revenue for everyone, from small companies to market giants.

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