Buyers Pick the Best—and Worst

During the past week, we’ve asked key players in the television industry to reflect on what they learned in 2021, the state of the TV advertising marketplace and where things stand with measurement struggles. Today, we wanted to tackle another key industry issue. We’ve written hundreds of stories about all the various streaming services—including how the biggest platforms stack up, subscriber-wise—but we’ve never surveyed people about which streamers they love, and which ones frustrate them. Until now: we reached out to buyers and analysts to get their (anonymous) takes on which streaming services are currently the best—and the worst—and why. Here’s what they told us: Netflix remains stream queen Netflix is not only the world’s biggest streamer—with 214 million global subscribers at last count—it was also the one platform that consistently was named as the best by those we surveyed. Here’s How the Biggest Streaming Services Stack Up in Mid-2021 “It’s hard to answer anything but Netflix has still being the best,” said one respondent. “They are continually pumping out attention- and audience-grabbing shows. And their interface, recommendations, etc. are still best in class. Other services have strong interfaces as well, or some areas of strong content, but Netflix’s head start still has them out in front.” Another said Netflix’s lack of ads put it on top, but Hulu also rated highly “because it doubles as a TV alternative” with its live TV offering. Meanwhile, one person noted that Google/YouTube should be at the top of any streaming list. “Many in the industry don’t consider them streamers, but they have massive scale and reach on the traditional TV screen.” One buyer said that looking at the platforms as a consumer, “it’s all about the quality and breadth of content and user experience, including personalization, discovery and ad experience.” With that criteria, the best are Hulu and Netflix. “Significantly behind: all the FASTs [free ad-supported streaming TV services] and services like Fox Nation.” But from a marketer’s perspective, noted that same buyer, “it’s all about audience availability: is the service ad-supported and delivering audiences unreachable in linear? And, if it is, are the ad solutions innovative and driving impact? Hulu, Peacock—you could include YouTube here as well—are leading the way on that front. Non-ad supported services like Netflix, Apple+ and Amazon Prime obviously can’t deliver from this perspective.” Plenty of ‘worst’s to go around The responses were far more varied when it came to which streamers come up short—which almost every other platform aside from Netflix and Disney+ being mentioned at least once. Those cited included Peacock, given that “the content available for the service did not align with consumer expectations in 2021,” said one person. One buyer noted that Hulu is giving “limited transparency on where we are running,” and also cited frequency issues they have anecdotally observed, wherein “they are running ads from the same advertiser for the same stream too close together, in the same pods sometimes.” However, this person adds, “they have scale.” Also problematic; HBO Max, given that “limited subscriptions in the ad-supported platform has stunted growth, making investment in the offering difficult.” Another buyer said, “The biggest struggle this year has been the cost of HBO Max and Peacock, and how to justify the CPM with the viewership and delivery.” Multiple respondents cited the FAST services as among the worst streaming services, with one explaining that the platforms are “just a sea of content that is hard to sort through. Usage is growing, so they are filling a need and the viewer is there. But they are not on my personal list of streaming ‘go-to’ apps.” Here’s How Much Streamers Spent on TV Advertising in 2021

Year in Review

Buyers Pick the Best—and Worst—Streaming Services

Here’s what they really (anonymously) think about Netflix, Hulu, Peacock and HBO Max

Jason Lynch

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Jason Lynch