One quarter of Americans say they’re out of things to watch
One quarter of Americans say they’re out of things to watch
A new survey from Bango highlights the content overwhelm American streaming audiences are dealing with.
Streaming audiences are still struggling with content discovery, but it’s not because there aren’t enough streaming services to keep them occupied. In fact, a new survey from Bango found that Americans are overwhelmed by the amount of content available to them, and it’s leading an increasing number of viewers to say they’ve simply run out of things to watch.
Key Details:
- Far too long: Nearly 30% of Americans spend half an hour or longer deciding what to watch next.
- Giving up: Twenty-five percent of audiences say they’ve run out of things to watch.
- AI to the rescue?: More than 20% of respondents report turning to AI to help reduce scrolling.
Bango’s Subscription signals 2026 report has revealed that 30% of Americans say they occasionally spend longer trying to find a new title to stream than actually watching that title. Twenty-nine percent say they spend 30+ minutes browsing for their next stream, and that number leaps to 48% among Gen Z respondents.
Content overwhelm has left 25% of Americans feeling they’ve run out of things to watch. It isn’t content scarcity, but rather choice paralysis that’s leading to this conclusion, and it’s affecting even the biggest streamers; 32% of Disney+ subscribers report being unable to find a new stream on the service, and 30% of Netflix subscribers say the same.
Those issues are leading consumers to AI to help them spend less time scrolling. Bango found that 22% of respondents have let AI pick what they watch in order to cut down on time spent browsing streamers. A further 21% of participants said they thought letting AI pick shows would reduce arguments bout what to watch next.
This last step is big news for streamers that have put meaningful resources into embedding AI agents in their platforms. Tubi recently launched a partnership with ChatGPT to help connect customers to titles more easily, though The Streamable’s Matt Taminini found that the collaboration leaves something to be desired.
Amazon has put a ton of resources into AI integrations on Prime Video, and Netflix and other streamers have been increasing their usage of AI tools. If these features can help deliver quality recommendations, they stand a good chance of helping streamers distinguish themselves in the era of content overwhelm.
Prime Video
Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.