Parks Associates: Prime Video is most-used streaming service in U.S.

For the third consecutive year, Amazon’s Prime Video has outranked its competitors as the most-used streaming service in the United States, according to a report released by Parks Associates on Tuesday.

The report is part of the research firm’s Streaming Video Tracker, which will be detailed at the company’s Future of Video conference in Southern California later this month.

Prime Video has topped Parks Associates’ report of the most-used streaming service since 2022, when it leapfrogged former first place contender Netflix, which has been in second place ever since. This year, Disney took third place, a title previously held by its general entertainment service Hulu, which slipped to fourth place. Comcast-owned Peacock came in fifth place.

The Streaming Video Tracker utilizes data released by companies themselves along with signals from third-party measurement firms and the company’s own modeling and forecasts to offer estimates about the growth and effectiveness of more than 300 North America-based streaming video platforms.

The report released on Tuesday only evaluated subscription-based services — it didn’t include free, ad-supported platforms like Paramount’s Pluto TV, Fox Corporation’s Tubi or the non-premium version of Google-owned YouTube.

That said, ad-supported services are growing in popularity, and subscribers are increasingly choosing ad-inclusive plans in order to save costs, the Parks Associates research report indicated. The firm estimated around 88 percent of U.S. households subscribe to a streaming service, and 42 percent of those are using ad-based products, which it said will create “incredible competition for subscription streaming services.”

Another trend has emerged: The consolidation of content across different services, especially among co-owned brands. Jennifer Kent, the Vice President of Research at Parks Associates, noted that Showtime was knocked out of the ranking in part because Paramount rolled the brand into its Paramount Plus streaming service; the linear multiplex network and the premium version of the streaming service are now marketed as Paramount Plus with Showtime.

Coincidentally, Parks Associates released its report just a few hours before Amazon confirmed a long-time rumor that it will sunset its free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) brand Freevee and move the platform’s content library into Prime Video.

“Tracking the changes at the top of the market over the past five years reveals the extent of rebranding and consolidation shaping this market,” Kent said. After noting the changes at Showtime, she continued: “We expect to see more premium content used to differentiate subscription tiers or create content bundles, giving consumers choice in how to build their packages.”

Among some of the less-dominant but still growing services, Parks Associates affirmed Peacock is still not profitable for Comcast, but said the company’s inclusion of top-tier sports programming like the 2024 Summer Olympic Games and simulcasts of NBC’s Sunday Night Football is helping it grow. A price increase effectuated by Peacock earlier this year was offset by higher interest in the Olympics, where Peacock offered all events on a live basis and included additional features like multi-view feeds and a whip-around channel called “Gold Zone.”

Warner Bros Discovery has improved the position of Max, ranked in sixth place, by winding down its Cartoon Network app for cable customers and moving shows from that service into Max. They also offered extended free trials or discounted plans to Max through a number of third parties, including the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package (where Max is available for four months through YouTube TV), Chegg Study and DoorDash, among others.

Apple, meanwhile, has lagged behind some of its peers, Parks Associates affirmed. Despite finding early success with shows like “Ted Lasso” (produced by Warner Bros) and “Severance,” streamers still aren’t flocking to Apple TV Plus, especially when their generous free trials offered through the purchase of certain Apple devices expire.

That might change over time, Parks Associates noted, because Apple has signaled their willingness to reach potential subscribers independent of the Apple ecosystem. Earlier this year, Comcast began bundling Apple TV Plus with Netflix and Peacock through an offering called “Stream Saver,” which is available to their Xfinity Internet customers. Last month, Amazon began selling subscriptions to Apple TV Plus through its Prime Video Channels marketplace. TheDesk