Netflix’s ad-supported users seem to be less engaged, and that’s constraining its time spent growth. Netflix’s strategy of rolling out a lower-cost ad-supported tier in conjunction with its password-sharing crackdown worked well on the business side as subscriptions and revenues increased. But the new cohort of ad-viewing subscribers appear to be watching less Netflix than higher-paying ad-free viewers. As a result, growth in average time spent among Netflix viewers went negative in 2024 and will stagnate this year.
Hulu’s decline seems at least partially strategic. Time spent with Hulu dropped across the population and among active users in 2024, and we project the same for 2025 and 2026. Disney’s rumored plan to combine all its properties into one app might be hurting Hulu’s short-term results. Hulu’s programming is increasingly available on Disney+, hinting at the parent company’s long-term intentions. If users watch Hulu-branded content via Disney+, that time no longer accrues to Hulu by our methodology, but it’s likely all the same from Disney’s point of view.
Read the rest of the report, US Time Spent With Sub OTT Streaming 2025.