Streaming services face more challenges than simply trying to figure out which new show to pay for or how to keep customers subscribed once they’re signed up. Platforms also need to continue drawing the eyes of younger viewers in the future, and there are seemingly more options than ever before. A new survey from Hub Research shows that competition comes not only from other premium streaming services, but from social media and video game platforms, music, and even podcasts, suggesting that streamers may want to consider incorporating more of these types of content in the future.

Key Details:

• The total number of entertainment sources used by the average household now sits at 13.
• On average, audiences say more of their entertainment platforms are “nice to have” than “must-haves.”
• Many age groups are using more non-premium video sources to get their entertainment.

Hub’s data shows that the average household is using more individual sources to get their entertainment than ever before. Viewers are using 13.1 entertainment sources each, and the number climbs higher among different demographic groups; young people (under age 35) use 16 different sources, and households with kids use almost 17 sources. Those numbers have increased steadily in the past two years, according to Hub’s numbers.

Despite the growing number of entertainment platforms used, not all of them are considered indispensable. Streamers have been focused on implanting themselves in the minds of customers as being too critical to cancel, but Hub’s data finds that less than 50% of the sources used by the average households are considered “must-haves.” It’s close to a 50/50 split, however, and that holds true across all demographic groups included in the survey.

The most important data point for streamers in the survey is the amount of competition they have from non-premium video sources, including on-demand streamers, cable plans, live TV streaming services, and free streaming platforms. While every demographic uses an average of six or more of these types of services, in each they’re outnumbered by other types of services.

These alternative entertainment sources include social video platforms like TikTok and YouTube, gaming, streaming music platforms and more. All respondents to Hub’s survey use an average of seven such services, as compared to 6.1 premium video streamers. The disparity jumps even higher among younger viewers and families with kids, as adolescent users are much more likely to have a social media account than they are to have a paid streaming service of their own.

The data points to the need for streaming services to potentially become more multifaceted, with social video options and even gaming. There may be some resistance to this, however; Netflix has been trying to get more users playing its mobile games for some time, but hasn’t had a lot of success yet. Other streamers may look at its struggles as proof that gaming and social features are expensive, and not worth the money or effort in the end.

“These findings underscore how competitive the entertainment landscape has become,” said Jon Giegengack, Principal and Founder at Hub and one of the study authors. “In particular, video games, YouTube and TikTok are rapidly gaining share of mind among young consumers, who have an entirely different idea of what ‘entertainment’ means and are forming habits unlikely to change as they grow older.”

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