• by Wayne Friedman , August 28, 2023

Across all linear and streaming TV platforms, the number of individual video titles has grown 60% over the last two years to 2.7 million in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Mexico and Germany, according to Nielsen’s Gracenote.

Given the growing non-exclusivity of programming sales, 86.7% of these titles can be found on streaming platforms. 

The growing availability of titles has had an effect on the time it takes streaming consumers to choose programming to watch.

Nielsen says audiences now spend an average of 10 minutes 30 seconds and half minutes searching for something to watch -- higher than the time of 7 minutes and 24 seconds it took to find something to watch four years ago (in March 2019).

Gracenote says there are now 39,500 distinct total channels in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Mexico and Germany. This includes thousands of separate channels on many free ad-supported services such as Tubi, Pluto TV, and the Roku Channel. For example, Google TV’s live TV service now has 800 free channels.

Although it has slipped, U.S. ad-free subscription, video-on-demand still commands a leading position with a 49% share (versus a 53% share). U.S. ad-supported streaming minutes watched has grown to a 26% share in the U.S. -- up from 25% in the second half of 2021. 

Streaming minutes watched on all U.S. pay TV services -- cable, satellite, telco and virtual -- has grown to a 15% share level (from 10% in the second half of 2021).