Recently DigitalSmiths, a Tivo-owned research company, released their fourth quarter 2015 OTT study and revealed the top dogs in the subscription streaming market in the United States.
So here are the top US subscription OTT services:
- Netflix 48.1%
- Amazon Prime 19.6%
- Hulu 10.6%
- HBO Now 4.1%
- CBS All Access 1.8%
- PlayStation Vue 1.8%
- BlockBuster 1.8%*
- Sling TV 1.6%
2% listed other streaming services and 44.6% said they do not use a streaming service.
Clearly Netflix is continuing to dominate online streaming, but all of the top services have some troubling news. They all lost market share last year. As cord cutting grows and more services, such as Sling TV, HBO Now, and PlayStation Vue, come out to new markets it starts eating into other services market shares. Back in the second quarter 2015 Netflix had 49.4% of the US market but now they are down to 48.1%. Amazon Prime had 20.1% in the second quarter of 2015 but only 19.6% in the fourth.
Although it is true both services have more subscribers this just shows that the competition for the millions of new cord cutters is starting to eat into their dominancy. This, in the end, is likely a good thing for cord cutters. Preventing one or a few streaming services from getting an unstoppable dominancy in streaming means cord cutters can enjoy the benefits that come from competition.
This competition from new services means lower prices, more options, and, in the end, a better cord cutting experience. So although you may have to subscribe to more than one service remember that competition is likely keeping the overall price down and helping you get access to more content.
*BlockBuster, since this survey was taken, has since shut down and now redirects over to Sling TV.
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