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Ad-supported streaming has increasingly become a popular option for consumers looking to cut down their entertainment costs, according to a Thursday study from the National Research Group and Roku.
Of the nearly 3,000 respondents surveyed between the ages of 18 and 70 who watch at least five hours of TV per week, 70 percent said they were willing to pay for an AVOD service if it meant monthly subscription costs would be lower, the study found. Twenty-five percent of respondents also said they added an ad-supported paid subscription in the past year, while nearly a third of respondents said they added a new ad-supported free streaming service to their entertainment diets.
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The findings come as streamers like HBO Max and Paramount+ have included cheaper, ad-supported tiers to their subscription offerings over the past summer. NBCU’s Peacock also has a premium paid tier with ads, while Hulu has long had an ad-supported tier that has, in part, helped the streamer drive most of Disney’s streaming revenue.
Netflix, on the other hand, has been resistant to adding advertising to its offerings and, in 2019, said it would have a “more valuable business in the long term by staying out of competing for ad revenue and instead entirely focusing on competing for viewer satisfaction.”
The NRG/Roku study also found that majority of Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Boomers use streaming services as cord-cutting continues to take place. Sports streaming, however, still lags behind traditional pay TV, with 42 percent of respondents saying they watch sports via streaming compared to 62 percent who watch on pay TV, according to the survey.
Consumers are also concerned with having access to new films on streaming, with 73 percent of respondents noting that new movie releases are a key factor in why they would try a new streaming platform.
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