A new consumer survey published today by All About Cookies finds that fewer than one in four U.S. streaming subscribers actually watch and pay attention to advertisements during streaming breaks, raising pointed questions about the real value of ad-supported video on demand inventory at a moment when platforms are aggressively expanding that tier.

The survey, conducted in March 2026 with 1,000 U.S. adults, covers platforms including Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, and Paramount+. It was authored by Josh Koebert, a data journalist whose work has appeared in publications including CNET, PCMag, Forbes, and TechCrunch, and edited by Kalleigh Lane. The findings were published on April 22, 2026, by All About Cookies, a digital privacy and security information site based in Delray Beach, Florida.

The timing is not incidental. The AVOD market has grown substantially in recent years. As PPC Land reported in its coverage of the Video Advertising Bureau's 2026 streaming analysis, eMarketer estimates that 209.4 million U.S. consumers used ad-supported streaming in 2026 - up from 164.4 million in 2023. That 27% gain over three years is the context within which the All About Cookies survey lands. Scale is not the same thing as engagement.

What viewers are actually doing

According to the All About Cookies report, 24% of streaming subscribers with ad-supported accounts say they watch and pay attention to the advertisements they are shown. That leaves 76% tuning out in some form. The most common escape route is the phone: 74% of respondents say they look at a second screen during ad breaks, typically checking email or social media. More than a third - 38% - leave the room entirely, going to get a snack or use the bathroom. Another 32% stay put but mute the ad.

The picture that emerges is one of near-systematic disengagement. Three out of four subscribers are doing something else the moment a commercial appears. For advertisers paying CPMs based on delivered impressions, the gap between delivery and actual attention is operationally significant.

This is not a new industry problem, but it has sharpened as the number of platforms running ads has expanded. PPC Land has tracked the growing emphasis on attention-based measurement across the connected television ecosystem, where companies such as TVision and OpenX launched pre-bid attention targeting in March 2026 precisely because impression delivery and viewer engagement are not equivalent signals. The All About Cookies survey adds consumer self-reported data to that structural observation.

Ad overload: the platform breakdown

According to the survey, more than three-quarters of all streaming subscribers - 76% - feel that major streaming platforms in general carry too many ads. When broken down by service, the dissatisfaction is concentrated but widespread.

Hulu leads on negative sentiment: 71% of its subscribers said the platform shows too many commercials, the highest figure of any platform measured. Peacock followed at 68%. Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+, and others all registered substantial complaint levels as well. HBO Max was the outlier: it is the only platform where fewer than half of users object to the current ad load, though 49% still said there were too many ads on that service. Netflix sits near that range at a 50-50 split, reflecting its position as the only major platform where more than half of subscribers - 52% - pay for an ad-free tier.

The pattern matters. For Hulu, Peacock, and Prime Video specifically, at least three-quarters of their subscribers are on ad-supported accounts. That means a large base of paying customers is being exposed to ad volumes that a decisive majority find excessive.

The churn signal

Ad overload is not merely a viewing inconvenience. According to the All About Cookies survey, 52% of respondents have considered canceling a streaming service specifically because of its advertising. That is a churn risk that sits directly alongside the growth narrative that AVOD platforms have been projecting to advertisers and investors.

Amazon's pricing moves are illustrative of the broader dynamic. As PPC Land covered in March 2026, Amazon raised the cost of its ad-free Prime Video tier by 67% - from $2.99 to $4.99 per month - rebranding it as Prime Video Ultra on April 10, 2026. Netflix raised its standard plan to $17.99 and its premium tier to $24.99 in January 2025. Disney+ lifted its ad-free tier to $18.99 in October 2025. Across the sector, the economic logic has been to make ad-supported tiers the default for cost-sensitive subscribers while steadily increasing the premium required to escape them.

The All About Cookies data suggests that strategy carries a ceiling. When more than half of subscribers have contemplated canceling over ads, the calculus between retention and ad revenue extraction becomes less straightforward.

Format preference: pre-roll wins decisively

The survey asked respondents a direct trade-off question: given the same total amount of advertising time, which format would they prefer - one long ad before the programme begins, followed by uninterrupted viewing, or multiple shorter breaks during the programme?

The result was not close. According to the survey, 67% of respondents prefer the single lengthy pre-roll ad. Only 12% said they would choose multiple short breaks scattered through the content. A residual 21% expressed no preference between the two formats.

That 67-to-12 margin carries specific implications. Mid-roll inventory - ads inserted during the programme - is a standard and frequently used format across most AVOD platforms. It is also, by this measure, the format that subscribers find most disruptive. Pre-roll inventory, placed before content begins, is far more acceptable to the audience. The preference is not about the quantity of advertising time; it is about where in the viewing session that time falls.

For media planners and buyers, this distinction is actionable. PPC Land has noted the industry-wide discussion around how video ad formats are categorised programmatically, including Adform's April 2025 adoption of IAB Tech Lab OpenRTB 2.6 signals that introduced clearer classification between in-stream, accompanying, interstitial, and standalone placements. Format transparency and format preference are converging as parallel pressure points on the same inventory.

Subscription habits and the ad-free tier gap

The All About Cookies survey provides a detailed cross-platform view of which subscribers pay to avoid ads and which do not. Netflix is the single outlier where a majority - 52% - choose the ad-free account. HBO Max and Disney+ follow at 46% and 40% respectively going ad-free. For all other major platforms, at least three-quarters of subscribers opt for cheaper, ad-supported accounts.

The average U.S. consumer currently subscribes to 3.4 streaming services, costing an average of $48 per month across those subscriptions, according to a separate All About Cookies cord-cutting survey cited in the report. That figure provides context for why ad-supported tiers dominate. Subscribers managing costs across multiple services are unlikely to pay premium prices on all of them simultaneously.

Nielsen's 2026 Upfront Planning Guide, covered by PPC Land in March 2026, found that among adults aged 18 to 49, streaming now accounts for 66.7% of all time spent with ad-supported television. Non-FAST AVOD - covering platforms such as YouTube, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, and Paramount+ - accounts for 81.1% of that streaming share. The audiences are large and growing. Whether they are paying attention when the ads run is a separate question, and the All About Cookies data provides a blunt answer.

What the attention gap means for the market

The survey sits within a broader industry conversation about the quality - not just the quantity - of streaming ad impressions. PPC Land has tracked a series of measurement developments addressing this gap. TVision's State of Streaming report released in August 2025 found that original streaming content captured 64% attention compared to 59% for library content. The VAB and TVision report released in February 2026, also examined by PPC Land, demonstrated that premium video platforms outperformed YouTube across five attention metrics, including a sustained attention score 18% higher than the platform benchmark.

Lumen Research's partnership with Netflix, announced on March 5, 2026 and covered by PPC Land, introduced eye-tracking attention measurement for Netflix's ad-supported inventory across the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. The explicit motivation was that existing metrics - impressions, completion rates, reach - do not reveal whether subscribers actually look at the ads being delivered.

The All About Cookies survey, which relies on self-reported behaviour rather than passive measurement technology, reaches a complementary conclusion from the consumer side: three-quarters of subscribers are actively not watching. A phone is picked up. A room is left. A mute button is pressed. These are deliberate acts of disengagement, not passive inattention. The survey does not quantify the economic cost, but the implication for advertisers relying on completion rate as a proxy for effectiveness is clear enough.

Methodology

According to the All About Cookies report, the data was collected in March 2026 via a survey platform. All 1,000 respondents were U.S. citizens over the age of 18 and participated anonymously. The survey covered ad-supported account usage, viewing behaviour during ad breaks, format preferences, and subscription tier choices across major streaming platforms. The report was published on April 22, 2026, at allaboutcookies.org.

Timeline

Summary

Who: All About Cookies, a digital privacy and security information site headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida, conducted the research. The report was authored by data journalist Josh Koebert and edited by Kalleigh Lane. Survey respondents were 1,000 anonymous U.S. adults over the age of 18.

What: A consumer survey measuring how U.S. streaming subscribers behave during advertising breaks, which platforms they consider over-loaded with ads, what ad format they prefer, and how many have considered canceling a service because of its advertising. Key findings include: 24% of subscribers pay attention to streaming ads; 76% consider platforms to carry too many ads; 67% prefer a single pre-roll ad over multiple mid-roll breaks; 52% have considered canceling a service because of ads; and Netflix is the only major platform where the majority of subscribers - 52% - pay for an ad-free account.

When: The survey was conducted in March 2026. The report was published on April 22, 2026.

Where: The survey covered U.S. respondents only and examined the major streaming platforms available in that market, including Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, and Paramount+. The findings were published at allaboutcookies.org.

Why: The survey matters because the AVOD market has been growing rapidly - eMarketer estimates 209.4 million U.S. consumers use ad-supported streaming in 2026, up 27% from 2023 - while evidence that viewers actually watch those ads has remained thin. The data gives advertisers, agencies, and platforms a consumer-level view of the engagement gap between delivered impressions and actual attention, at a moment when the industry is investing in attention measurement technology precisely to address that gap.

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