Streaming Subscriber Gains: 71% Increase in Ad-Based Plans in Last 2 Years

The recent TV upfront season just ended, and streaming services were in the spotlight right alongside sports.
A few years ago, things looked very different at upfront presentations. Companies like Netflix and Disney+ didn’t even have ad-supported options until late 2022. But times have changed. To boost revenue and focus on profits, advertising has become a crucial part of the streaming world.
New data from Antenna shows just how quickly this shift is happening. Between the first quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2025, 51.4 million out of the 71.8 million new U.S. streaming subscriptions were for ad-supported plans.
That’s a huge 71% of growth in the ad-supported sector.

Here’s a breakdown of the data:
As of March 2025, 46% of all streaming subscriptions in the U.S. are for ad-supported plans.
In the first quarter of this year, 65% of ad-supported subscriptions were brand new, 23% were for customers who had left a service and then come back, and 11% were for those who switched from an ad-free plan to an ad-supported one.
The data covered popular services like Discovery+, Disney+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount+, and Peacock. Interestingly, Amazon Prime Video, which automatically includes ads for subscribers, wasn’t included in this analysis.

Why does this matter?
With traditional TV struggling, advertising is becoming more important for streaming platforms. The data from Antenna is a good indication that consumers are okay with ads if it means lower prices.
“Streaming’s ad-supported era is here, and it’s thriving,” wrote Ali Erkurt, a senior product manager at Starz, in a recent LinkedIn post. “Ads aren’t a compromise. They’re a choice, and increasingly, the preferred one.”