MW Streaming viewers are OK with double the commercials as 'subscription fatigue' sets in
By Lukas I. Alpert
As streaming costs go up, viewers are looking for better deals - and many say they'd watch more ads for lower prices, a new survey shows
People's willingness to watch more ads on streaming TV is going up as prices have been rising, a new survey shows.
"Peak TV" is now being replaced by "subscription fatigue."
The number of viewers who say they are willing to watch more ads in order to get better deals is rising, according to a new survey, as prices continue to go up for many streaming services.
With overall costs rising for consumers, many are looking for savings wherever they can - and the survey shows that more than a third of streaming customers say they would watch twice as many ads in exchange for lower prices.
"For years, the assumption was that subscribers would always pay more to avoid adverts. But for a growing number of consumers, watching more ads is now an acceptable trade-off if it means keeping monthly costs down," said Giles Tongue, a subscription expert with Bango, a subscription-bundling service in the U.K. which commissioned the survey.
In a poll of 2,500 streaming customers in the U.S. that was conducted in January, Bango found that 36% said they would be happy to watch more advertising in return for lower prices. That's up from 24% who didn't object to advertising on streaming services in 2024.
The preference is even more pronounced now among younger viewers, with 46% of millennials and 49% of Gen Z respondents saying they were willing to watch more ads.
The shift to ad-driven packages comes as many streaming services have been raising prices. Just last month, Netflix $(NFLX)$ increased its prices for the second time in just over a year, by $1 per month for its ad-supported tier and $2 a month for its standard and premium plans.
Amazon Prime (AMZN) also recently announced it was raising prices for viewers to watch ad-free to $4.99, from $2.99 a month (on top of the annual Prime subscription fee). Paramount+ $(PSKY)$ also raised prices by $1 a month across its range of subscription plans.
Bango's survey revealed that the average American consumer is paying $69 a month - or $828 a year - for steaming services. Almost a quarter of them said they were spending more than they could afford on such services, with 41% of Gen Z-ers saying they were exceeding their limits on streaming.
The pressure on consumers comes as the growth of streaming services has slowed, with much of it coming from viewers shifting over from cable rather than an actual expansion of the market.
Data show that overall consumer spending on video entertainment - which includes streaming services and cable TV - grew very slightly between 2019 and 2025, from $140 billion to $144 billion.
That adds up to a compounded annual growth rate of just 0.4% since 2019 - but when inflation is factored in, that figure drops to minus 3%.
This has led streaming services to look for ways to increase profitability, mainly by cutting costs and raising prices.
-Lukas I. Alpert
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 13, 2026 13:01 ET (17:01 GMT)
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