TiVo yesterday released its Q4 2025 Video Trends Report, finding that North American consumers watched more video daily than at any point since 2021 - with households averaging more than 10 streaming services and monthly entertainment spending climbing to $161.

The report, published June 4, 2026, covers viewing behavior measured during the fourth quarter of 2025 among 4,493 adults aged 18 and older in the United States and Canada. TiVo, a wholly owned subsidiary of Xperi Inc. (NYSE: XPER), has conducted this survey annually since 2012, making it one of the longer-running consumer panels in the video industry. The Q4 2025 edition lands at a moment when the economics and structure of home entertainment are under sustained pressure - yet the numbers suggest audiences have not pulled back.

Daily viewing above five hours for the first time since 2021

The headline finding is straightforward. Daily video consumption surpassed five hours per household in Q4 2025, the highest level recorded since 2021. That comparison carries context: 2021 was the tail end of pandemic-era viewing patterns, when lockdowns and stay-at-home orders drove exceptional screen time. The return to those levels now - without an equivalent external catalyst - is what makes the figure notable.

Monthly entertainment spending reached $161, according to TiVo, reflecting year-over-year growth after a post-pandemic dip. That recovery is not trivial. A period of cost reassessment, triggered by a wave of subscription price increases across major platforms, appears to have plateaued. More than 35% of consumers routinely reassess subscriptions and viewing choices to balance cost, access and content availability, the report states - and yet the spending line moved upward regardless.

The number of video services per household also rebounded. Average usage returned to more than 10 services following a brief decline in prior quarters. That figure encompasses SVOD (subscription video on demand), AVOD (advertising video on demand), FAST (free ad-supported streaming television), and pay TV services combined. What it does not indicate is consolidation; the data points instead toward continued accumulation, with households layering services rather than swapping between them.

AVOD and FAST reach 70% adoption

For advertisers, the AVOD and FAST numbers carry the most direct relevance. AVOD/FAST adoption rose to 70% of respondents in Q4 2025, up five percentage points year-over-year. At the same time, more than half of consumers - 54% - now use ad-supported subscription tiers, meaning they are paying for a service but accepting advertising as part of that arrangement. AVOD and FAST services combined now account for 13% of total viewing time, according to the report.

The growth in FAST specifically is visible at the channel-level. The average FAST user now watches 7.5 channels, an increase of more than two channels compared with a year earlier. The leading FAST destinations cited by TiVo are Pluto TV, Tubi, Roku Channel, and Amazon Prime Video. That list reflects the platforms that have invested most heavily in FAST content libraries and distribution agreements over the past two years.

This matters for the advertising market. Ad-supported streaming in the United States now reaches approximately 209.4 million viewers, according to a Video Advertising Bureau analysis published in April 2026. The TiVo data adds a behavioral dimension to that scale figure: not only are audiences large, but they are also expanding the number of ad-supported channels they regularly consume. For programmatic buyers managing frequency and reach across FAST inventory, that two-channel increase per average user creates both opportunity and planning complexity.

CTV advertising spending reached $33.35 billion in 2025, with its share of total media budgets having risen from 14% in 2023 to an estimated 28% in 2025. The TiVo report's FAST numbers reinforce why that budget share has moved so quickly. FAST inventory has expanded faster than most other video categories, and the TiVo panel data suggests audiences are actually using those services - not simply having them available.

Smart TV home screens as advertising surface

One of the more operationally specific findings involves where consumers spend their time when they are not actively watching content. According to TiVo, smart TV home screen owners spend 57% of their non-viewing time on the home screen itself. That figure has strategic implications beyond content discovery.

The smart TV home screen has become an increasingly important surface for advertisers, sitting upstream of any streaming application and reaching viewers before they enter a walled-garden environment. TiVo Ads - the advertising division of Xperi - is itself one of the inventory sources available in that market, having partnered with Nexxen in May 2026 to make its home screen placements accessible programmatically. The Q4 2025 report provides the behavioral rationale for that investment: audiences are genuinely present on home screens for extended periods, not simply passing through.

According to Nielsen data cited in prior industry research, households may spend up to 10.5 minutes browsing before selecting content. That pre-content window is distinct from in-app streaming inventory and operates without the content adjacency constraints that govern pre-roll advertising inside streaming services.

Discovery friction rises with fragmentation

The report does not present fragmentation as entirely benign. As the number of services grows, finding something to watch takes more effort. Forty percent of consumers report checking two to three different apps before deciding what to watch. That behavior reflects a structural problem: the growth of services has outpaced the development of cross-platform discovery tools.

Discovery itself is also shifting away from in-app recommendations. Word of mouth influences viewing choices for 49% of respondents, and social media for 40%. Those are higher than in-app discovery mechanisms, which means platforms are losing influence over their own audience acquisition funnel. A viewer who decides what to watch based on a conversation or a social feed may bypass the platform's recommendation engine entirely.

Media fragmentation has been forcing new budget allocation strategies among advertisers since at least mid-2025. The TiVo data extends that picture to the consumer side: fragmentation is not just an advertiser operational problem but also a viewer experience problem. And when viewers find discovery frustrating, they spend more time browsing rather than engaging - a dynamic that inflates dwell time on home screens while simultaneously reducing the efficiency of platform-level recommendation investment.

"Consumers are watching more video than ever before, but they're enjoying that content across an increasingly fragmented mix of platforms and services," said Geir Skaaden, chief products and services officer at Xperi. "As the entertainment ecosystem continues to expand, helping viewers easily discover and access the content they want has become more important than ever. For advertisers and platforms alike, delivering simple, seamless viewing experiences will be critical to reaching audiences and keeping them engaged."

Local content claims nearly 30% of total viewing

Local programming is a category that often receives less attention than streaming originals or live sports, but the TiVo data assigns it significant weight. Local content accounts for nearly 30% of total viewing time in Q4 2025, an increase of approximately five percentage points year-over-year. That is a meaningful share for a content category that does not benefit from major platform marketing budgets.

Sports remains a parallel anchor. Nearly 60% of sports viewers rely on pay TV as their primary source, according to the report. That dependency sustains pay TV's relevance even as cord-cutting continues. Sports rights remain concentrated in linear and pay TV environments, and viewers who want live sports in real time generally have limited alternatives. Sports content now represents 5% of global SVOD libraries, with streaming platforms investing heavily in rights acquisitions - but pay TV's 60% share among sports viewers suggests that transition is not yet complete.

The durability of local and live content amid fragmentation is a theme that surfaces consistently in industry research. Sports documentaries and structured sports content are driving investment in streaming hub technology, with platforms recognizing that episodic scripted content alone cannot anchor engagement the way live and local programming does.

Season release formats: binge still preferred

On the question of how content should be released, the report finds relatively stable preferences. About half of respondents prefer streaming services to release an entire season at once. Roughly 20% favor a weekly episode rollout. The remainder either have no strong preference or use both formats depending on the title. The binge model still commands a plurality - which matters for content providers deciding whether to release original series in batches or in weekly installments, a decision that affects subscriber retention curves, marketing windows, and social media conversation dynamics.

"The number of viewing options available to consumers continues to grow, but what is most notable is how audiences are responding to that expansion," said Alan Wolk, co-founder and lead analyst at TVREV. "Consumers are becoming more selective about where they spend their time and money, and entertainment services remain a priority. Live sports and local programming serve as important anchors, while the broader market is shifting toward simpler, more value-conscious viewing choices. The industry is entering a phase where effective curation and discovery matter just as much as scale."

What the numbers mean for the advertising market

The Q4 2025 report arrives as the upfront advertising market is actively being negotiated. Most streaming viewers now report ignoring ads, and attention measurement has become a central concern for buyers allocating budgets across AVOD, FAST, and premium streaming inventory. The TiVo data complicates and enriches that picture simultaneously.

On one hand, the 70% AVOD/FAST adoption figure means ad-supported video has reached mainstream penetration. On the other hand, the discovery friction data - 40% of viewers checking multiple apps before deciding - suggests that viewer attention is distributed and interrupted rather than concentrated. An audience that has spent ten minutes browsing before selecting content may be in a different attentional state than one that has navigated directly to a program.

CTV's conversion gap - the difficulty of connecting a television ad impression to a measurable downstream action - remains an unresolved structural challenge. The TiVo data informs that challenge by providing household-level behavioral context. Viewers who check two to three apps before selecting content are spending time on surfaces - home screens, app stores, preview tiles - that differ structurally from the in-content environments where most CTV ad impressions are currently measured.

A+E Global Media's multiyear Nielsen measurement deal and similar measurement investments across the industry reflect the industry's effort to close those gaps. The TiVo report provides one additional data source: a quarterly consumer panel tracking self-reported behavior rather than device-level signals, which captures motivations and habits that ACR and impression data cannot.

Methodology and background

TiVo's Video Trends Report methodology has been consistent since 2012. Each edition surveys adults 18 and older in the US and Canada, with the Q4 2025 wave covering 4,493 respondents. The survey covers SVOD, TVOD (transactional video on demand), AVOD, OTT apps, content discovery features, connected devices, and emerging technologies. It is designed to serve TV providers, digital publishers, advertisers, and consumer electronics manufacturers.

TiVo itself discontinued its DVR hardware business in October 2025, according to Wikipedia, having operated in the hardware market since its first unit shipped on March 31, 1999. The company - originally developed by Jim Barton and Mike Ramsay through a corporation named Teleworld, later renamed TiVo Inc. - was acquired by Rovi for $1.1 billion in April 2016 and subsequently merged with Xperi Corporation, completing in May 2020. As of October 2025, Xperi repositioned TiVo as a software platform and research operation rather than a hardware manufacturer, licensing its user interface and content discovery technology to TV manufacturers and pay-TV operators worldwide. The Video Trends Report continues as a research output of that platform business.

Xperi's own Q1 2026 financial results, reported in May 2026, noted that Media Platform revenue grew 45% compared with the first quarter of 2025, a trajectory that reflects the company's pivot toward platform licensing and data services rather than device sales.

Timeline

  • March 31, 1999 - TiVo ships its first DVR, the unit codenamed "Blue Moon," originally developed by Jim Barton and Mike Ramsay through TiVo Inc.
  • April 2016 - Rovi acquires TiVo for $1.1 billion
  • May 2020 - TiVo and Xperi Corporation complete merger
  • 2021 - Daily video viewing reaches peak levels that become the benchmark for subsequent quarters
  • Q2 2025 - TiVo Q2 2025 Video Trends Report finds average services per household rising from 9 to 10; video spend up year-over-year
  • July 2025 - Kargo announces CTV partnership across TiVo-powered devices
  • July 2025 - Media fragmentation forces new budget allocation strategies, per AudienceProject analysis
  • August 2025 - IPG Mediabrands launches contextual CTV solution as FAST services reach 5.7% of total TV viewing
  • October 1, 2025 - TiVo exits DVR hardware manufacturing after 26 years; Variety reports remaining inventory depleted
  • November 2025 - Industry expert warns against applying display strategies to CTV environments
  • December 2025 - Gracenote enhances sports streaming hub technology as sports documentary viewing reaches 16.9 million minutes in the US
  • February 24, 2026 - VAB and TVision report finds premium video delivers 33% stronger co-viewing than YouTube on CTV
  • March 16, 2026 - A+E Global Media signs multiyear Nielsen deal covering linear and digital measurement
  • April 6, 2026 - VAB 12th annual streaming report finds ad-supported streaming reaches 209.4 million US viewers; CTV set to represent 43% of TV ad budgets in 2026
  • April 22, 2026 - Consumer survey finds most streaming viewers ignore ads and prefer fewer, longer ad formats
  • May 6, 2026 - Xperi reports Q1 2026 results; Media Platform revenue up 45% year-over-year
  • May 13, 2026 - Nexxen adds TiVo to its smart TV home screen ad network via programmatic integration
  • June 4, 2026 - TiVo publishes Q4 2025 Video Trends Report; daily viewing surpasses five hours, AVOD/FAST adoption reaches 70%, household services return to 10+

Summary

Who: TiVo, a wholly owned subsidiary of Xperi Inc. (NYSE: XPER), alongside TVREV co-founder and lead analyst Alan Wolk, who provided independent commentary on the findings. The survey covered 4,493 adults aged 18 and older in the United States and Canada.

What: The Q4 2025 Video Trends Report documents the highest daily video consumption levels since 2021, with households averaging more than five hours of viewing per day, using more than 10 video services on average, and spending $161 per month on entertainment. AVOD/FAST adoption reached 70%, the average FAST user now watches 7.5 channels, and smart TV home screen owners spend 57% of their non-viewing time on the home screen. Local content accounts for nearly 30% of total viewing time, up approximately five percentage points year-over-year.

When: The report was published on June 4, 2026, covering consumer behavior measured during Q4 2025. TiVo has run this survey annually since 2012.

Where: The survey covers the United States and Canada. TiVo operates as a platform business headquartered in San Jose, California, following its exit from DVR hardware manufacturing in October 2025.

Why: The findings matter because they document sustained consumer engagement with video - and with ad-supported video specifically - at a moment when the advertising industry is actively allocating CTV budgets and debating measurement standards. The 70% AVOD/FAST adoption rate, the growth in FAST channel usage per viewer, and the home screen dwell time data each have direct implications for how programmatic buyers plan reach, frequency, and targeting across an increasingly fragmented streaming landscape.