As we’ve previously covered, the streaming industry is fragmented, with a glut of paid streaming service options often overwhelming customers to the point of cancellations. Despite generally increased streaming viewership during the COVID pandemic lockdowns, budget-crunched bingers simultaneously tightened their wallets, with many millennials realizing they might have too many paid subscriptions.

TiVo’s recent quarterly report reveals how consumers bundled their streaming video subscriptions during Q1 2020, and while HBO Max and Peacock hadn’t yet impacted the arena, the report shines some light into which services were most popular with a world in lockdown.

Paid-TV Subscribers

1. YouTube, Netflix
2. Amazon Prime Video, Netflix
3. YouTube, Amazon Prime Video
4. Amazon Prime Video, Amazon rentals & purchases
5. YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix
   (all of the above include a Paid-TV service)

Broadband-Only Subscribers

1. YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix
2. Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Netflix
3. Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+
4. YouTube, Hulu, Netflix
5. Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Amazon rentals & purchases

YouTube and Netflix are popular with both paid-TV and streaming-only subscribers, lending credibility to these streaming kingpins’ legacy. Netflix had a famously successful Q1 2020, shattering subscriber growth expectations during lockdown, so it’s expected to see its appearance in the top spots for both categories. Amazon’s already large Prime subscriber base concurrently received a 28% boost, while YouTube’s AVOD service is appealing to paying customers of both paid-TV and streaming-only, making it an ideal supplementary subscription.

Cord Cutters News conducted their own similar survey, asking their cord-cutter viewers which streaming bundles they preferred.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Amazon and Netflix took the top spot by a large margin, with each longstanding service being ingrained in streaming viewers’ minds. Similar to TiVo’s study, Amazon dominated several of the top bundles, while free, ad-supported option YouTube was second in frequency.

So what next? With HBO Max and Peacock gaining momentum, it will be interesting to compare Q2’s numbers to see if the slow recovery of the economy is able to stimulate paid subscriptions, or if Peacock’s ad-supported free tier will fill in the much-needed paid subscription relief a COVID-weary world is seeking. We will also see if Disney+ can maintain its rapid growth since launch late last year.

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