Still, it's early in the game, and it's unclear whether advertising will fill the gaps of unstable subscriber growth for streaming.There's been an uptick of consumers signing up for ad-supported streaming subscriptions. In the U.S., they grew nearly 25% year over year to 55.2 million in the first quarter of this year from 44.3 million in the year-earlier period, according to data firm Antenna. Growth in ad-supported tiers was on the rise last year, too.
Netflix, while noting it was still "in early days," said this week it had 5 million monthly active users for its cheaper, ad-supported option and 25% of its new subscribers were signing up for the tier in areas where it's available. Disney, which is also the majority owner of Hulu, has the greatest number of ad-supported subscriptions, followed by Peacock, Paramount+, Warner Bros. Discovery — which has the soon-to-be-merged Max and Discovery+ — and Netflix, according to Antenna. Hulu and Peacock are the two streamers with a majority of subscribers on ad-supported tiers, the data provider said.Another way of padding streaming businesses with revenue is through free, ad-supported, or FAST, channels.
For Fox, which is focused on sports and news on traditional TV channels, Tubi is its answer to streaming. As CEO Lachlan Murdoch had earlier noted in an earnings call, Tubi was a focal point at Fox's Upfront presentation last week. Executives cheered Tubi for making measurement firm Nielsen's streaming gauge report for the first time ever recently.
Executives at media companies including Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount and Disney have said in previous investor calls that there remains room to grow on ad-free streaming options.
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