There is a lazy habit in our industry. Something shifts in the US market and within weeks it becomes a European strategy talking point. AVOD is booming, ad tiers are the future, Linear TV is dead. The data tells a different story and it has been telling it for four years, but most people were not reading the right study.
For the past four years, RTL AdAlliance’s The New Life of the Living Room report has tracked how Europeans actually watch, pay for and feel about video content. The 2022 edition started with 8,500+ respondents across 10 countries. By 2025, that had grown to 12,500+ respondents, 15 European markets, with the US added as a benchmark (back in 2024). The study earned its authority over time.
I went through all four editions to identify a few key trends (but do grab the reports for more) ahead of the release of the the fifth edition, which Streaming Made Easy is co-producing with RTL AdAlliance. It goes further than any previous iteration: 15,000+ respondents, 17 countries in 3 continents. Before we get there, here is what four years of data already tell us.
At a glance:
→ The US comparison trap
→ Broadcast still owns the first click
→ The ad-tier migration is speeding up
→ Trust is moving in one direction
→ What’s in store for 2026?
The US comparison trap
The 2024 edition introduced the US as a benchmark for the first time. Smart move and not because the markets are similar but because the data proved they are not.
Start with advertising: In the US, 22% of viewers said they actively pay attention to ads. In Europe, that number was 8%. Americans were almost three times more receptive. US viewers also showed far greater tolerance across every platform: ad annoyance on YouTube sat at 38% in the US versus 57% in Europe. On AVOD, 30% versus 41%.
The gap goes beyond attitudes toward ads. It showed up in which platforms people actually use. In the 2025 study, 38% of US respondents watched FAST content on their TV set daily. In Europe, that figure is 10%. YouTube on the TV set hit 53% daily usage in the US versus 30% in Europe.
Churn tells the same story. 53% of US respondents admitted to churning SVOD subscriptions (subscribing for a show, then cancelling). In Europe, that dropped to 37%. Americans treat subscriptions like rentals while Europeans treat them more like utilities. The 2023 edition showed what happens when Europeans do face budget pressure: 48% preferred dropping a subscription entirely rather than switching to a cheaper ad-supported plan (28%). They cancel, they do not downgrade. That is a fundamentally different churn dynamic than the US subscribe-watch-cancel cycle and it has been consistent across multiple editions.
Content preferences diverge too. In 2024, the most-watched genre on European linear TV was news (30% of viewing). In the US, it is sport (22%). This shapes programming strategy, scheduling and ad placement for anyone operating across both regions.
42% of US households were willing to increase their video budget during 2024. In Europe, only 17% said the same.
The takeaway is simple: US trends are directionally interesting. They are operationally misleading for anyone planning a European launch, campaign or content strategy.
Broadcast still owns the 1st click
The 2025 report asked: “when you turn on your TV, where do you go first?”
59% of European viewers go to broadcast content first when they turn on their TV. That is linear TV (51%) plus BVOD (8%), ahead of SVOD (29%), YouTube (10%) and FAST (2%).
The same study mapped genre preferences by platform. Linear TV led for news (59% of viewers watched it there), sport (44%) and entertainment (44%). SVOD dominated only one category: movies and series, at 63%. The genres that drove daily habit, the ones people build their evenings around, still belonged to broadcast (which explains partnerships like the Netflix / TF1 one or Netflix’s content investment into daily soaps like Valle Salvaje with RTVE or Tout pour la lumiere with TF1 and Newen Studios).
When asked to define what counts as “watching TV”, the study shows that the lines of the definition are blurring for viewers, as their opinions differ widely. What stands out is that “watching TV” is perceived as a mix of device, platform and content type. While half of European respondents consider watching long-form content on YouTube via their TV set as “watching TV”, only 22% feel the same about user-generated content (UGC).
That’s not it, more insights ahead: Read Marion’s full article and takeaways on Streaming Made Easy (including next sections: The discovery problem that needs fixing, The ad-tier migration, The trust gap keeps widening, and What’s in store for 2026?) Click here to access for free.
Plus, join Marion live for the Streaming Made Easy workshop at StreamTV Europe, 13 April 2026, where she and industry leaders will delve into key questions like Who owns the first click in the living room? Register here.