HALF OF STREAMING USERS DON’T KNOW WHICH SERVICE THEIR FAVORITE SHOW IS ON

A new study by hub Entertainment Research has found that about half of streaming users do not know which service has popular franchise shows — and licensing is to blame. About the same percentage of TV viewers say they could not explain what Apple TV+ is to another person.

The licensing of TV series across several services — at once or at different times — has “created confusion as to where [shows] reside,” the report reads. For anyone without a (particularly good) voice-control remote, this is a problem.

Exactly 50 percent of hub’s (their stylization) survey respondents said they are “not sure” where “The Office” and “Friends” reside. “The Big Bang Theory” and “South Park” have a 55 percent/45 percent split, which means 55 percent are “not sure” where the shows stream and 45 percent at least wagered a guess — correctly or incorrectly.

A whopping 69 percent of survey-takers said they’re not sure where “Band of Brothers” is streaming. We get it, “Band of Brothers” is a 23-year-old premium-cable limited series. The HBO original is (quite obviously, we think) streaming on Max (fka HBO Max), and was recently licensed to Netflix as a co-exclusive.

Hub surveyed 1,600 TV consumers aged 16-74 who a) watch at least one hour of TV per week, and b) have broadband access. The data was collected in early February 2024 and participants were balanced with U.S. census data.

Find the where’s-it-streaming breakdown of those and other classic series below:



Make no mistake: one series can be the difference between signing up for a streaming service and churning out of one. Thirty-nine percent of hub’s pool said they’ve joined a streamer for one specific show.

Netflix has the highest individual percentage (27 percent) of signups for one specific show. Likely, it’s “Stranger Things.” Paramount+ (22 percent) and Peacock (18 percent) had the second- and fourth-highest percentage, respectively, thanks in large part to the NFL. Between them is Disney+ (19 percent); Max (17 percent) had the fifth-highest rate.

Streaming users also said they can’t really tell you the differences between the various platforms. Nearly half the group said they are not “confident” in their ability to explain to someone else how Apple TV+ is different than anyone else in the space. That was the lowest percentage of the major streamers.

Only about 65 percent of respondents could tell you the differences between Max, Peacock, and Paramount+ vs. the field. About three-quarters of respondents said they are confident in how they’d explain the respective brands for Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Disney+ to others. Netflix is no sweat — there’s a strong enough brand and we’ve all got that one.

Source: indiewire.com