PORTSMOUTH, NH—Despite the turmoil in media and entertainment in 2023, with the writers/actors strikes resulting in a dearth of new scripted TV shows, Americans remain grateful for the era of “peak TV,” even if managing all their choices is a challenge.
That’s according to this year’s edition of Hub’s annual “Conquering Content” report which notes that appreciation for having “so many TV shows to watch” has increased significantly this year and is up by nearly half since 2020.
Hub said that with so much to choose from, platforms that make discovery easy have a big advantage. The volume of content on streaming platforms, coupled with an increase of cross-licensing popular shows across services, make all of this content more difficult to use, prompting more than 60% of consumers saying they’re more likely to choose platforms with better search, discovery and recommendation tools—up from 56% in 2022.
Hub also found that nearly two thirds of viewers say their current favorite show is an older show that’s been on for several seasons—up from 54% in 2021. In fact, one of the most mentioned favorites was Suits, a show which was cancelled in 2019 and hasn’t had a new episode in four years.
As studios return to licensing quality shows outside of their owned services, consumers are responding positively to the abundance of things to watch, whether ‘new’ or just ‘new to them.'"
Jason Platt Zolov
“While the pipeline for new shows has slowed due to this year’s historic Hollywood strikes, consumers' loyalties to streaming services can remain stable, provided those services match them with the right content,” said Jason Platt Zolov, one of the report’s authors. “As studios return to licensing quality shows outside of their owned services, consumers are responding positively to the abundance of things to watch, whether ‘new’ or just ‘new to them.’”
“Peak TV has created a huge number of quality shows that many people just didn’t have time to watch when they were new,” said Jon Giegengack, founder and principal at Hub. “But they’re happy to watch them, and this backlog will maintain engagement while production gets back under way. It also bodes well for licensing of exclusive shows to new services with audiences that haven’t seen them yet.”
Hub's findings in its latest report are based on a survey conducted among 1,600 U.S. consumers with broadband, age 16-74, who watch at least one hour of TV per week. Interviews were conducted in October 2023 and explored how consumers discover new shows across different platforms and providers. A free excerpt of the findings is available on Hub’s website.
