Netflix had 29% of total connected TV viewing hours in February, followed by YouTube with 21%, Hulu at 12% and Amazon Prime Video at 9%, but rivals are quickly gaining ground, blogged Courtney Gursky, Comscore senior marketing content specialist. Netflix’s overlap with Amazon Prime Video subscribers in February was 67%, up from 60% in February 2021, and was 67% with YouTube, 51% with Hulu, 44% with HBO Max, 40% with Disney+ and 30% with Peacock, according to Comscore. The market may have reached a “tipping point” where consumers with multiple over-the-top video services will begin to cut back on subscriptions, Gursky said Monday. Netflix could grow its popularity with an ad-supported tier, which CEO Reed Hastings last week suggested as a possibility to stem a subscriber exodus after the company reported a 200,000 subscriber loss last quarter (see 2204200002). An ad-supported tier could be a "game-changing move" for Netflix since half its subscribers said they would choose an ad-supported plan for $5 less per month, she said, citing a June report from Hub Entertainment Research. In February, the reach of ad-supported video-on-demand services was 75.3 million households vs. 74.7 million for SVOD services, she said.

SiriusXM signed a content deal with former NFL receiver Brandon Marshall’s I Am Athlete media network for Mad Dog Sports Radio, which will air on channel 82 on SiriusXM radios and on the SXM app, said the service Monday. I Am Athlete Tonight begins Wednesday, running 7-9 p.m. EDT.

Telev8, provider of TV content distribution solutions to the hospitality and healthcare industries, will use TiVo’s Managed IPTV Service to deliver entertainment to hotels and other commercial venues, the companies said Friday. Hotels and other commercial venues will be able to offer premium video at lower cost while differentiating their brand, they said.

U.S. consumers are “picking their pets" over the latest "binge-worthy Netflix shows” in deciding which areas of “discretionary spending” to reduce to cope with the biggest rise in inflation in 40 years, reported First Insight Thursday. The analytics firm canvassed 1,000 people by email this month in a sample that was “proportionately balanced” by generation, region and gender, finding 42% plan to reduce spending on dining out to cope with rising prices, and a third saying they will cut back on entertainment, it said. Only 16% said they will reduce spending on pet services, it said. About a quarter (24%) plan to curtail spending on streaming services, putting that in the middle of the pack of about a dozen discretionary spending options.

Vizio added Warner Bros. titles to its WatchFree+ streaming library, it said Wednesday. It brings over 5,000 ad-supported titles to Vizio smart TV owners. No subscriptions or log-ins are required, Vizio said.

Twenty-one percent of cable and direct broadcast satellite subscribers expect to cut the cord within the next 12 months, said video advertising services firm Pixability Wednesday. It said cord cutting is particularly pronounced among younger subscribers, with more than 53% of those 18-24 who still subscribe to traditional pay TV expecting to end those services in the next year. It said YouTube has the biggest reach of all streaming platforms in the U.S., with 87% of consumers saying they watch the platform. Among people ages 25-34, that jumps to 97.2%. On average, a U.S. adult watches YouTube about an hour a day, with music and audio the most-popular YouTube content, it said. The Pixability data came from a survey of 703 U.S. adults.

HBO Max is the latest streaming provider to join Verizon’s +play platform, said Verizon Wednesday. Verizon launched the platform in March (see 2203030067) as way for its customers to centralize their streaming subscriptions via video, audio, gaming, fitness and music, it said. The platform is in early trials and will roll out to all Verizon customers this year, it said. Other services on the platform are Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, discovery+, AMC+, Netflix, Peloton, WW, The Athletic, Calm, Duolingo and TelevisaUnivision’s Vix+.

The suspension of the Netflix service in Russia and the “winding-down of all Russian paid memberships" sent Q1 global streaming paid net additions into negative territory, reported the company Tuesday. Paid net subscriber losses were 200,000 compared with the outlook for 2.5 million global streaming paid net additions in the Jan. 20 forecast. Russia caused losses of 700,000 paid net adds. Net additions would have been up by 500,000 globally “excluding this impact,” said Netflix. The Q2 forecast is for paid net losses to worsen to 2 million, compared with nearly 1.54 million paid net additions in 2021's Q2. “Our forecast assumes our current trends persist (such as slow acquisition and the near term impact of price changes) plus typical seasonality.”

Netflix appears to be approaching a ceiling on U.S. and Canadian subscribers, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter wrote investors Thursday, and its withdrawal from Russia could affect subscriber growth this year by 5 million or more. Netflix is pulling new levers to lower subscriber churn, including additional content production fueled by price hikes in Western markets, he said. Subscriber growth will likely come from less developed regions at lower subscription prices, “with Western subscribers paying higher rates to fund new content,” Pachter said. Full-season content dumps “will likely keep churn high,” as price-conscious customers leave Netflix for a competing service after viewing content they want to see, he said. Profit growth should continue as long as the company can continue raising subscription prices, “but competition may limit future price increases,” he said. Netflix shares have dropped from a high of $691 in mid-November to Wedbush’s $342 price target in early March, where they have hovered since, he noted. Shares closed 2.7% lower Thursday at $341.13.

Amazon’s IMDb TV ad-supported streaming video service is rebranding as Freevee. The Amazon website Wednesday listed compatible streaming devices as Amazon Fire TV, Echo Show, Android and Google TV, LG, PlayStation 4 and 5, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Xbox and Comcast Infinity “with more options coming soon.” Freevee has half the ads of traditional TV, with no subscription required, Amazon said. Apps are available at Apple's App Store and Google Play.