Linear or streaming: who will win the throne?

Undeniably, with the wide adoption of streaming services by consumers, it has become super-popular in the space of entertainment. The huge level of interactivity, flexibility, and variety of choices it provides keep its hold strong among consumers.

However, as more people opted for streaming services, the price increased, and streaming companies began to offer less expensive ad-supported tiers gradually to effectively handle the situation.

With the addition of more free services and a boom in ad-supported programming, it is clear that users’ interest in subscribing to multiple services is not growing, and the consumption of free streaming services has drastically increased.

Here is the survey report of the Horowitz Research Division of M/A/R/C Research.

The "State of Media, Entertainment, and Technology: Subscriptions 2023" report, published in March 2023,

Here are the report results:

The user experience has evolved and increasingly aligns with traditional ad-supported linear programming as streaming has expanded and grown as a channel, an evolution that may benefit legacy providers more than streaming's relative newcomers.

It is apparent that the industry is at a crossroads right now, and it remains to be seen who will emerge victorious in this debate.

After the pandemic, as the viewership of streaming increased, the powerful players in the streaming industry introduced ad supported tiers, formed new collaborations to help marketers effectively target their audiences, and offered something irresistible in order to attract customers to their platform.

However, while the ad costs on streaming platforms are already higher compared to other platforms, the competition in the space didn’t decrease as people’s love for streaming never seemed to fade.

However, a few months ago, some of the studies conducted around streaming media consumption gave disappointing results to marketers and industry leaders.

The Deloitte study results showed streaming TV taking a dip, with at least a third of the millennials planning to decrease the number of streaming services to which they were subscribed.

PQ Media research results: Ad-supported media engagement considerably fades.

Now, the above survey results show that the introduction of more ad-supported tiers in the streaming space enhances the scope of linear TV, as both provide the same kind of user experience.

It is well known that in the race for linear or streaming services, streaming services have outperformed linear TV in recent years, particularly because of the ad-free convenience they provide to users.

But now, the situation has been gradually changing with the ad-supported option.

So, to make the most of their streaming investments, brands and marketers need to tweak their strategies to effectively capture the audience's attention in a streaming environment.

Instead of whining over the recent survey results on streaming services, we believe it is high time for marketers to focus on designing compelling ads to do their best to get good results.

Moreover, it is also equally important for marketers to keep an eye on how both linear TV and streaming services are performing to plan their media mix accordingly, as linear channels have all the chances to take the lead at any time.