71% of streaming subscriber gains in the last 2 years were to ad plans

Here’s the thing:

The TV upfront season recently wrapped, and streaming took center stage — alongside sports.

Just a few short years ago, upfront presentations looked decidedly different; Netflix and Disney+, for example, did not even offer ad-supported plans until late 2022. But priorities have changed. To diversify revenue and focus on profitability over subscriber growth, advertising is becoming a major part of the streaming business.

New data from Antenna reflects this rapid change. Between Q1 of 2023 and Q1 of 2025, 51.4 million of the 71.8 million net new U.S. streaming subscriptions were to ad-supported tiers.

That’s a whopping 71%.

Data debrief:

As of March 2025, 46% of all SVOD subscriptions in the U.S. are to ad-supported plans.

In Q1 alone, 65% of ad-supported subscriptions were new users, 23% were “win backs,” or those who canceled a service and then resubscribed and 11% were “traders,” meaning those who were first on an ad-free plan and switched to an ad-supported plan.

The data included Discovery+, Disney+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount+ and Peacock. Notably, it excludes Amazon Prime Video, which made its ad tier the default option for subscribers last year.

Why it matters:

Advertising could become an even bigger focal point for SVOD platforms as traditional linear TV struggles. The momentum shown in Antenna’s report is a positive sign that consumers seem comfortable with ads in exchange for lower prices.

“Streaming’s ad-supported era is here, and it’s thriving,” Ali Erkurt, a senior product manager at Starz, wrote in a LinkedIn post. “Ads aren’t a compromise. They’re a choice, and increasingly, the preferred one.”