2024 streaming trends and 2025 outlook: Kent

Jennifer Kent

As 2024 came to an end, the Parks Associates analyst team took a moment to reflect on another transformative year that highlighted the challenges and adaptability of the streaming market. Streaming platforms embraced innovation, integrating cutting-edge technologies like AI for personalization and edge computing for seamless experiences, while audiences demonstrated an increasing appetite for convenience, quality, and variety.   

2024 Streaming Trends

Throughout 2024, nearly every major streaming raised prices, yet again.

Parks Associates 2024 price increases graph
Parks Associates tracking of 2024 streaming price increases.  (Parks Associates)

Price Increases

Streaming providers continue to face mounting pressure from rising production, licensing, and distribution costs, as well as increasing demand from investors to demonstrate financial returns. Price increases are one way to help close that gap. The price of streaming services, even within just the last year, has soared, especially for ad-free subscriptions. On average, select streaming services in the table above have increased in price by an average of 18% (excluding services tiers with a 0% increase) this year. Larger streaming services especially have been raising prices, introducing “paid sharing,” and discretely nudging consumers to paid ad-supported tiers to help boost profitability.

Ad-Based Streaming

With services raising prices year after year, almost now on a regular cadence, households are moving to ad-supported plans to still access content on services, but at a cheaper price. Fortunately for streaming providers, paid ad-supported tiers generate more revenue than a basic subscription tier without ads, which is likely why there’s been a stronger emphasis towards ad-based streaming as of late. Ad-based streaming is popular among consumers and beneficial to providers and continues to be where platforms are increasing investments in more content and channel offerings. As of Q3 2024, 47% of US internet households use free ad-based services.

Accessible Streaming

Several entertainment providers debuted new accessibility features and content catered to specific demographic groups. For example, Comcast launched a Spanish-language streaming package (Now TV) this year. Other providers like Spectrum TV and Sling TV offer add-on packages with channels that cater to various international markets and interests. On the backend, services worked to improve closed captioning, subtitles, and audio descriptions while also expanding support for captions and audio descriptions across more languages and content, improving accessibility for non-English speakers. Continued improvements to accessibility help broaden reach and foster a deep connection with diverse audiences who seek culturally relevant content in their preferred language.

OTT Streaming Trends to Watch in 2025

The streaming entertainment industry took several steps forward in 2024, and 2025 will continue this momentum. Key trends and predictions from Parks Associates for 2025 include the rising prominence of interactive content and television commerce (T-commerce), the ongoing consolidation and bundling of streaming services, and the sustained dominance of sports as a critical revenue source and differentiator.

Interactive Content

As mentioned in the November Streaming Tracker update, interactivity was a main theme of Parks Associates’ 7th annual Future of Video conference held in Marina del Rey from November 19-21. Several industry leaders throughout the event mentioned how their company plans to implement more interactivity in video entertainment throughout 2025, as well as how t-commerce – purchases made through the TV or second-screen app, triggered by ads or products in a video stream – is primed to be more influential in the coming year.

These efforts will likely be in the form of:

  • Content library holders creating new FAST channels with interactive formats
  • Adding interactive layers to existing video content
  • Incorporating interactive elements into unscripted programming
  • Interactive ad formats that leverage t-commerce, gamification, geo-targeting, and user choice (e.g., Fubo)

Parks Associates research finds that 79% of US internet households using social video such as YouTube and TikTok interact on the platforms in some way. Notably, 19% make purchases directly through the platform and 18% purchased something recommended in a video but bought it on another site, demonstrating the promise of T-commerce for future revenue.

Interactive features on social platforms Parks Associates 2024

With many consumers regularly watching video on a television while also simultaneously interacting on a second-screen such as a mobile device, the television experience is primed for the next generation, elevated by interactivity.

For more on this trending topic, look out for Parks Associates’ upcoming reports titled, Interactive TV: Betting, Polling, Chatting, Commerce as well as CTV Platform Expansion: Gaming, Fitness, Smart Home.

Further Consolidation

The streaming landscape is constantly in flux, with new services being added while others fade away or merge into larger ones – 2025 will be no exception and will continue the trend of consolidation seen in previous years. Already in January, consolidation of major services have been announced, with Disney acquiring a 70% stake in former competitor Fubo with plans to consolidate its Hulu + LIVE TV vMVPD offering with Fubo.

Those who once found value in the countless streaming options available now face confusion and fatigue from consistently re-evaluating which services to pay for in this ever-changing environment that impacts consumers too.

2025 is expected to address these challenges by simplifying access to content and services, with efforts focusing on:

  • Clarifying where specific types of content are located, such as reruns, new episodes, and supplemental content dispersed across broadcast, streaming business models, and social media.
  • Simplifying the shopping experience for subscription services, even outside of video entertainment, with hubs to help consumers manage all of their subscription costs – and not just for the most popular, wide-reaching content and services but niche interests as well.

2025 will bring more balance for consumers as consolidation will provide a more organized system that simplifies access to content and services while still maintaining freedom of choice and availability to niche programming.

Sports as a Differentiator

Sports content is one of the most powerful draws to viewer eyeballs, but the category continues to suffer from the same, if not more, confusion as other content types. Fortunately, sports viewers are also highly engaged and willing to follow their favorite teams and athletes wherever they are.

In 2025, the sports viewing experience will likely evolve in the following ways:

  • Platforms will offer aggregated schedules and clear communication about where, how, and when to watch a game, match, or race.
  • Availability of interactive and viewer-oriented features such as multiview options, real-time statistics, and timeline navigation will become more commonplace.
  • Sports betting will become more integrated into the viewing experience (where legal) which will also open new revenue opportunities beyond traditional advertising.

Research by Parks Associates finds that over 10% of sports viewers have already engaged in interactive features while watching live sports. As more platforms offer this capability, use and appreciation of such features is expected to rise throughout 2025.

Parks Associates live sports engagements

Platforms will continue to battle it out over sports rights as well as other sports-centric exclusive and shoulder content with the goal of ultimately attracting and retaining these highly desirable viewers. Ultimately, sports fans will be better served with a more organized and immersive fan-centric experience.

Jennifer Kent is VP of Research at Parks Associates, where she manages the research department and Parks Associates' process for producing high-quality, relevant, and meaningful research. Jennifer also leads and advises on syndicated and custom research projects across all connected consumer verticals and guides questionnaire development for Parks Associates’ extensive consumer analytics survey program. Jennifer is a certified focus group moderator, with training from the Burke Institute.

Jennifer earned her PhD in religion, politics, and society and an MA in church-state studies from Baylor University. She earned her BA in politics from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

Parks Associates is a market research and consulting company and has extensive consumer and industry research on broadband, pay tv, streaming and connected home markets. The international research firm hosts the annual conference Future of Video: The Business of Streaming, in Los Angeles, CA in November 18-20, 2025. For more information visit www.futureofvideo.us.