The adoption of ad-supported tiers is on the rise, with Antenna finding that ad-supported streaming hit a total of roughly 100 million subscriptions at the end of the first quarter of 2025, up from 53 million two years prior.
Per the new report from the research firm, 65% of ad-supported subscriptions in the U.S. were made up of new users, compared to 23% that were “win backs,” who previously subscribed to a service, canceled, and resubscribed to the ad-supported tier, and 11% that were “traders,” who switched from an ad-free tier.
Hulu had the largest share of ad-supported plans in the first quarter at 24%, followed by Peacock at 22%, Netflix at 15%, Paramount+ and Disney+ at 14% each, Max at 8% and Discovery+ at 3%.
When looking more closely at Netflix, Antenna found that 44% of ad-supported subscribers were new users, compared to 69% for all other streamers. Meanwhile, about 40% were traders who switched from an ad-free tier and 16% were win backs, compared to 6% and 25% for the rest of the streamers, respectively, while 16% were win backs, compared to 25%.
The new data comes as both Nielsen and the streamers themselves offered their own updates about the state of their ad-supported progress during upfronts week in May.
Disney reported a total of 164 million monthly active users globally across Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, up from 157 million in January. Meanwhile, Netflix surpassed 94 million monthly active users.
Amazon’s Prime Video claimed an audience of more than 130 million in the U.S. alone, up from 115 million previously, with a 37% increase in monthly viewing hours. When combining the streamer with Amazon’s other owned and operated entertainment properties such as Twitch, MGM Studios, Wondery and Amazon Music, the tech giant’s entertainment portfolio reaches an average monthly ad-supported audience of more than 300 million.
NBCUniversal noted its entire portfolio reaches 286 million people a month, with 95% of that being ad-supported. Peacock has nearly 100 million monthly active users, according to Comcast. Paramount ad chief John Halley told TheWrap that the company reaches a total of 115 million ad-supported viewers per month across its streaming footprint.
Warner Bros. Discovery, which has a total of 122.3 million direct-to-consumer subscribers globally across Max, Discovery+ and traditional HBO cable subscriptions, did not break out its ad-supported viewership for Max, but said the base in the U.S. has doubled in the past year, with roughly half of new subscribers choosing that option.
Per Nielsen, ad-supported platforms across the media landscape accounted for 72.4% of TV viewing in the first quarter of 2025, compared to 27.6% for ad-free platforms. Cable and broadcast made up roughly 28.9% and 28.7% of ad-supported viewing, respectively, while streaming accounted for the remaining 42.4%.
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