Streamers are shelling out more money for the privilege of spending time with television apps and services, with bundled streaming services and local programming emerging as major drivers of engagement, according to the latest trends report from Xperi’s TiVo.
The report, released Wednesday morning, found streaming households now use an average of nearly 11 video sources, up from just over nine during the same period last year. Those sources include traditional pay TV, subscription streaming apps, ad-supported options and social video platforms.
The average consumer now spends around $212 per month across traditional pay TV, streaming and other forms of video, up 20 percent from the $176 per month logged during the second quarter (Q2) of last year, TiVo said. Streaming app costs increased to just over $58 per month, down from $65 per month last year, which TiVo attributed to higher churn across some apps as streamers become more choosy about the apps they pay for.
The average cost of video-related services was $168 per month in U.S. households, up 20 percent compared to the $148 per month Americans were shelling out during Q2 2024, the report said.
Nearly half of American households are using at least one bundled package of video services, and bundles are helping to increase consumer stickiness as the number of services — and their costs — grow by the month.
Bundles are also helping streamers achieve a sense of simplicity as the vast number of apps and services complicate the search, discovery and subscription process. Rather than paying for services on their own, many are gravitating toward subscription bundles that allow customers to pay a single — often discounted — price for access to multiple apps, and customers are gravitating toward all-in-one platforms that allow them to access content from multiple services through a single experience.
Those bundled, universal app experiences are becoming more important by the day: More than three-quarters of streamers surveyed by TiVo said they currently search for content across multiple apps in a single viewing experience, and over half said the process is frustrating. Bundled services and smart TV ecosystems are gaining favor as households look for ways to streamline access to content while controlling costs, TiVo said.
Subscription churn remains a challenge for most providers: Nearly one-quarter of U.S. households canceled at least one subscription video service in the past six months, while nearly 29 percent signed up for a new one. The number of people holding onto a newly adopted service for more than one year dropped below 40 percent for the first time, suggesting viewers are increasingly willing to cycle in and out of platforms.
Advertising tolerance held steady, with three out of four respondents saying they are at least somewhat open to ads on video services. Nearly two-thirds of Americans expressed interest in shoppable ads that allow direct purchases from the TV screen.
Ad-supported subscription tiers are also helping streamers retain subscribers who might otherwise churn out: Peacock was the most widely used ad-supported streamer, with more than one-third of Americans using the service, followed by Paramount Plus (60 percent) and Amazon’s Prime Video (59 percent). Content libraries remain the leading factor in choosing services, with 38 percent of subscribers citing breadth of programming and 35 percent pointing to exclusive original shows or movies.
Local content is also proving more important to viewers. Sixty-one percent of respondents rated local programming as somewhat or very important, an increase from 55 percent one year earlier. Nearly 30 percent of all video consumption time was spent on local content, compared with 21 percent in the second quarter of 2024.
Daily video consumption jumped as well, with households averaging more than five hours of viewing per day, up from 4.4 hours last year. Smart televisions remain the device of choice, with ownership reaching 75 percent. More than half of respondents who recently purchased a smart TV said the device’s platform was a significant factor in their decision, underscoring the role of integrated ecosystems in how viewers select and access programming.
Free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels have seen sharp growth: Nearly 70 percent of respondents reported using at least one FAST or AVOD service, an eight percent increase from 2024. On average, viewers consumed nine FAST channels in the second quarter, nearly double the number tracked last year. Fox Corporation’s Tubi, Prime Video and The Roku Channel ranked among the most-popular FAST services in American households.
Traditional pay television continues to face challenges: The TiVo report said 22 percent of subscribers plan to cancel their cable or satellite service within the next six months. But so-called “cord-cutters remorse” is also growing: Nearly one-third of households that dropped a traditional provider later returned, up about 10 percentage points from the previous year. Customers who haven’t canceled cable or satellite — or who did, and later returned — said they didn’t want to lose access to live sports and local TV, TiVo reported.
The survey was conducted among 4,510 adults in the United States and Canada between April and June. TiVo has published its Video Trends Report since 2012 to measure consumer attitudes toward pay television, streaming platforms and new viewing technologies.
The new TiVo Video Trends Report for Q2 2025 is available to view by clicking or tapping here.
