TiVo's Q4 2025 Video Trends Report, published June 4, 2026, documents the steepest single-year rise in daily viewing since the survey began in 2012 - nearly a full hour of additional viewing per day - alongside a sharp reversal in sports delivery patterns that reshapes assumptions about pay TV's decline.

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Peak engagement and a recovery in service count

TiVo, a wholly owned subsidiary of Xperi Inc. (NYSE: XPER), published its Q4 2025 Video Trends Report on June 4, 2026. The survey, conducted among 4,493 adults aged 18 and older in the United States and Canada during the fourth quarter of 2025, documents the highest daily viewing levels since TiVo began tracking consumer behavior in 2012.

According to TiVo, respondents watched just over 5.2 hours of video per day in Q4 2025 - an increase of nearly a full hour compared with 4.5 hours in Q4 2024. Placed in a longer context, the trend is striking: daily viewing was 4.5 hours in Q4 2021, fell to 4.2 hours in Q4 2022, recovered to 4.7 hours in Q4 2023, dipped again to 4.5 hours in Q4 2024, and then jumped to 5.2 hours in Q4 2025. No single-year increase in the dataset matches the Q4 2025 rise.

Household service counts followed a similarly sharp recovery. According to TiVo, respondents averaged just over 10 video sources in Q4 2025, returning to double-digit adoption after a brief dip the previous year. The breakdown: approximately 6.71 paid services and 3.63 non-paid services per household. That compares with 6.31 paid and 3.59 non-paid in Q4 2024. The income gradient is steep: households earning under $20,000 use an average of 8.26 services, while those earning $200,000 or more average 13.04. Both brackets increased slightly year-over-year.

Sentiment about service volume has, however, turned more negative at the margins. According to TiVo, 71.1% of total respondents describe their current number of services as "just right." But the proportion saying they have "way too many services" rose by 7 percentage points year-over-year, a sign that abundance is beginning to produce fatigue as much as engagement.

Monthly entertainment spending reached $161.17, up from $157 in Q4 2024. According to TiVo, 65% of respondents rate video as a moderate or high discretionary spending priority, unchanged year-over-year. The proportion who never reassess their entertainment spending stood at 35%, broadly consistent with the previous year.

Sports fragmentation reverses a multi-year trend

The sports data is the most consequential shift in the Q4 2025 report for media buyers and streaming strategists. According to TiVo, 77.9% of respondents actively watch sports content - and of that group, 58.6% identify a pay TV service as their primary method of consuming sports, up significantly from 40.3% in Q4 2024. That is an 18-percentage-point reversal in a single year, at a moment when most industry narratives have been pointing toward the gradual migration of live sports to streaming.

The reason appears to be structural. According to TiVo, sports viewers now need an average of 2.7 services to follow their favorite sport through a full season, up from 2.4 in Q4 2024. As fragmentation of rights across platforms makes it harder to follow a sport within a single streaming ecosystem, pay TV's aggregation function regains relative value. Despite that aggregation advantage, only 62.8% of sports viewers are able to watch all games or events for their favorite sport with the services they currently have.

Frustration is measurable. According to TiVo, 68.6% of sports watchers report that it has gotten harder to watch sports compared with prior years. A significant minority respond by abandoning content entirely: 36.0% of sports viewers will skip an event if it is not available through their current video sources, down slightly from 37.6% in Q4 2024. At the same time, 41.8% say they have extra budget and are willing to pay for additional services to follow their team, up from 37.6% a year earlier. That willingness-to-pay increase may partly explain the rise in pay TV as the primary sports source - some subscribers are reverting to bundled services as the cost of assembling a complete streaming sports portfolio approaches or exceeds the cost of a pay TV subscription.

When sports are not available via usual sources, respondents are most likely to go to a sports bar or restaurant (26.3%), visit a friend (25.1%), or temporarily subscribe to a streaming service and then cancel (22.9%). The temporary subscribe-and-cancel pattern, cited by 22.9% of sports viewers, is consistent with the broader churn dynamic visible elsewhere in the data.

Looking at the specific sports most followed, NFL football leads across all respondent segments at 31.4% total, with soccer notably rising in the dataset ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. According to TiVo, respondents are following soccer more closely than in previous editions of the report. Soccer reached 10.6% of total respondents among favorite sports to watch in Q4 2025.

PPC Land has tracked the growing importance of sports rights for pay TV retention across multiple reports through 2025 and 2026.

AVOD and FAST reach 70% adoption

Ad-supported video consumption crossed a new threshold. According to TiVo, 70.0% of respondents watched free AVOD or FAST services in Q4 2025, up from 65.2% in Q4 2024. AVOD and FAST combined account for 12.8% of total viewing time when measured across the full respondent base. For broadband-only respondents specifically, AVOD/FAST accounts for 20.3% of viewing time.

The FAST user is watching more channels than a year ago. According to TiVo, the average FAST user watched 7.5 channels in Q4 2025, up more than two channels year-over-year. The most-used free AVOD/FAST services by adoption are Tubi (27.1%), Amazon Prime Video (26.4%), Roku Channel (24.6%), and Pluto TV (23.1%). Amazon Prime Video's growth in this category reflects the rebranding and repositioning of Freevee, which TiVo notes grew significantly year-over-year.

Among those who use AVOD/FAST to watch live TV, genre channels - those organized around a theme such as crime, reality, or westerns - accounted for 34.3% of live TV channel time, followed by binge channels at 29.3% and news channels at 25.0%. The content distributed through FAST is watched primarily on a television set: according to TiVo, 60.2% of AVOD/FAST consumption time occurs on a TV, 15.3% on a smartphone, 11.1% on a tablet, and 13.4% on a computer.

The role of FAST as a live TV surrogate is also growing. According to TiVo, 66.1% of all AVOD/FAST users say FAST is the primary way they watch live TV, up from 64.3% in Q4 2024. That dual function - library content on demand and live linear channels without a subscription - is expanding FAST's competitive footprint into territory previously held by vMVPDs and, at the more casual end, by pay TV.

The Video Advertising Bureau's March 2026 report found AVOD streaming now reaches 209.4 million US viewers, with CTV ad spend projected at 43% of all TV budgets in 2026.

SVOD churn and price sensitivity

The SVOD market grew slightly more fragile in Q4 2025. According to TiVo, 83.9% of respondents subscribed to at least one SVOD service, down from 85.8% a year earlier. Of those SVOD subscribers, 53.8% have at least one ad-supported subscription tier.

Ad-supported tier adoption varied widely by service. According to TiVo, 56.4% of Discovery+ users are on the ad-supported tier, the highest rate in the dataset. Peacock follows at 68.4%, Hulu at 58.6%, and Netflix at 44.5%. Every major service in the data saw the share of ad-supported users increase year-over-year, which the report attributes to price sensitivity as multiple platforms raised prices through 2024 and 2025.

Price increases are the leading cause of cancellation. According to TiVo, 30.9% of respondents who canceled an SVOD service in the last six months cited a price increase as the primary reason. The next most common reasons were finishing a specific show or season (17.5%), poor content quality (10.0%), and free trial expiry (6.4%). Only 4.7% cited too many ads as the primary reason for canceling - a notably low figure given the volume of discussion about ad load in the industry.

The reasons for subscribing to a new service are led by large content libraries (26.2 index score) and original programming (17.4), with a single specific show or movie placing second (11.4). That hierarchy - library over event content - suggests that one-show subscriber acquisition, a strategy several services have leaned on heavily, converts less reliably than catalog depth.

A consumer survey examined by PPC Land in April 2026 found that 76% of streaming viewers believe platforms carry too many ads, and 52% had considered canceling over ad volume - adding context to the relatively low cancellation rate TiVo found for ad load specifically.

Smart TV operating systems and the home screen opportunity

According to TiVo, 74.2% of respondents own a smart TV in Q4 2025, a slight increase from 71.8% in Q4 2024 and from a low of 62.8% in Q4 2020. Of smart TV owners, 75.0% use the embedded operating system to navigate their experience as either a primary or secondary method. Among streaming navigation methods, apps built into the smart TV are the primary approach for 44.8% of respondents who own a smart TV, down slightly from 48.4% in Q4 2024, while streaming media players held as the second most common method at 30.9%.

Operating system loyalty is forming. According to TiVo, 35.1% of smart TV owners say the platform or OS would have a significant impact on their next purchase decision. That share has been rising and points toward the home screen as an increasingly contested commercial surface.

The dwell time on home screens is substantial. According to TiVo, smart TV owners spend 56.9% of the time they are using their device but not actively watching content on the TV's home screen - a figure the advertising market is responding to directly. According to TiVo, 65.8% of respondents noticed information about a TV show or movie on their TV's home screen. More than a third reported seeing excessive ad loads specifically on the home page, making excessive ad frequency the top ad-related annoyance overall.

On ad attitude broadly: 59.7% of respondents describe themselves as tolerant of ads, watching them sometimes but preferring not to at other times. Only 25.5% are actively averse to ads. A further 14.8% describe themselves as in favor of ads - preferring to watch ads rather than pay for ad-free content. The format preference data is also notable: 66.2% of respondents would prefer to watch all ads before a programme begins, while 33.8% prefer ads distributed throughout. This pre-roll preference is strong and has direct implications for ad insertion strategy on AVOD and FAST platforms.

Shoppable advertising is an emerging consideration. According to TiVo, meaningful proportions of pay TV subscribers report being somewhat to very likely to purchase something directly from their television screen - with Pay TV subscribers showing higher receptivity than broadband-only respondents across all likelihood scores.

Nexxen added TiVo Ads to its smart TV home screen ad network in May 2026, making TiVo's native home screen inventory available programmatically across North America and the United Kingdom through Nexxen DSP. PPC Land has tracked the wider smart TV home screen market through the Nexxen-VIDAA deal and subsequent programmatic expansions through H/L's first buy in April 2026.

Discovery, AI, and companion apps

Content discovery is fractured. According to TiVo, 40.0% of respondents search through an average of two to three apps before settling on something to watch, consistent with the prior year. A further 28% report searching only one app. Word of mouth remains the top discovery method, cited by 48.8% of respondents, followed by social media at 40.3% and browsing streaming services at 35.4%.

For the first time in the survey's history, 3% of respondents spontaneously noted using publicly available AI search tools - including ChatGPT and Google AI/Gemini - to discover new video content. The finding was not prompted by a survey option; respondents volunteered it as an open-ended response. At 3%, the behavior is nascent but represents a new channel entering the discovery stack.

Companion app usage reached 33.5% in Q4 2025, up from 32.1% in Q4 2024 and 28.2% in Q4 2022. JustWatch surpassed TMDB as the most commonly used companion app, with 11.1% of all respondents using it versus 8.9% for TMDB. IMDb maintained consistent usage at 37.6%.

The relevance score for organic word-of-mouth recommendations held at 54.4% (moderate or very relevant), the highest of the three recommendation categories tracked. Personalized platform recommendations scored 48.9%, and popular/curated recommendations scored 45.1%. All three scores are broadly stable year-over-year, suggesting that the hierarchy of discovery influence has not shifted materially despite the proliferation of algorithmic recommendations.

Nielsen's 2026 Upfront Planning Guide found ad-supported TV represented 74.2% of overall TV viewing in Q4 2025, contextualizing why discovery and inventory adjacency are converging pressure points for programmatic buyers.

Pay TV churn, revivers, and local content

Pay TV is not collapsing. According to TiVo, 26.2% of current pay TV subscribers plan to cut the cord in the next six months - a figure that has remained broadly consistent over the past several years. More telling is the reviver segment: 27.3% of current pay TV subscribers had cut the cord and later resubscribed. Of all current pay TV subscribers, 72.7% have never cut the cord, 9.7% cut and resubscribed more than six months ago, and 17.6% resubscribed in the last six months.

The top reasons for resubscribing are consistent with the sports data: the leading driver is inability to get all desired entertainment without pay TV, followed closely by sports access (29.7%) and access to major live events such as the Super Bowl or awards shows (29.4%). Local programming (27.4%) and the convenience of always having many channels available (27.2%) round out the top five.

Local content's share of total viewing time has been rising steadily. According to TiVo, local programming accounted for 29.4% of total viewing time in Q4 2025, up from 24.3% in Q4 2024 and 23.4% in both Q4 2023 and Q4 2022. The increase of roughly five percentage points in one year mirrors the sports pattern: content that requires local or live distribution is reasserting the value of services that can deliver it reliably. Among pay TV subscribers specifically, local content reached 32.0% of viewing time in Q4 2025.

Foreign-produced content is also growing. According to TiVo, 14% of total viewing time in Q4 2025 was spent watching programming from creators outside the respondent's home country or region, an increase of about six percentage points year-over-year.

Pay TV content is distributed primarily to the television set. According to TiVo, 65.0% of pay TV content is consumed on a TV screen, 13.6% on a smartphone, 11.8% on a computer, and 9.6% on a tablet. Primetime remains the dominant consumption window, accounting for 43.3% of pay TV content viewing.

TVOD and in-car video

Transactional video on demand (TVOD) usage held flat at 43.8% of respondents. The volume of purchases did not change materially, but spending per user increased: according to TiVo, TVOD users spent an average of $25.84 overall in Q4 2025, up from $17.83 a year earlier - roughly $8 more for the same number of transactions. Amazon Prime Video remained the leading TVOD platform, followed by YouTube, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, and Redbox Online.

Theater preference has declined substantially from its post-pandemic peak. According to TiVo, 44.9% of respondents prefer to see a new movie in a theater as of Q4 2025, down from 53.8% in Q4 2021. The share preferring to wait and stream at home reached 53.0% in Q4 2025.

In-car video is a growing behavior. According to TiVo, 46.2% of car owners report that video is watched in their vehicle, up from 44.4% in Q4 2024. Of those who watch video in the car, 76.8% do so at least a few times a month. The majority of in-car viewing happens on smartphones (53.9% of content), with the car's main front cabin display accounting for 12.1% - a notable increase from 9.1% in Q4 2024. Interest in built-in front-cabin video screens for next vehicles reached 35% of car owners, up from 31.5% the previous year.

Viewing source breakdown

The shift in viewing share across source types between Q4 2024 and Q4 2025 is visible in TiVo's breakdowns. Across the total respondent base, pay TV service accounted for 29.3% of viewing time in Q4 2025, down from 29.8% in Q4 2024. SVOD fell from 28.1% to 26.9%. AVOD/FAST rose from 11.2% to 12.8%. Social and user-generated content moved from 16.1% to 14.9%. vMVPD was stable at 8.1%.

The direction is clear across categories: ad-supported and free services are taking share from subscription services. That shift is gradual rather than abrupt - no single category moved more than a couple of percentage points in the period - but the trajectory across multiple consecutive quarters is consistent.

SVOD content, consumed by 83.9% of respondents, skews heavily toward television viewing: according to TiVo, 61.6% of SVOD content is watched on a TV, 15.3% on a smartphone, 12.8% on a computer, and 10.4% on a tablet. Primetime dominates at 45.6% of SVOD viewing time.

PPC Land's June 2026 coverage of VAB's multiplatform video report found CTV daily viewing time grew 8% year-on-year to 2 hours 37 minutes per US adult, reinforcing the direction visible in TiVo's viewing source data.

What the data means for advertisers

The report's advertising section contains several findings relevant to programmatic buyers and CTV planners. Ad tolerance among consumers is stable: 59.7% are tolerant but not enthusiastic, 25.5% are averse, and 14.8% actively prefer ads to paying for ad-free content. Excessive ad frequency - too many ads or breaks appearing too often - is the leading ad annoyance, cited by 35.2% of all respondents as their primary irritant, ranking ahead of repetitive, irrelevant, or poorly placed ads.

The preference for pre-roll over mid-roll is strong and quantified for the first time in this edition. According to TiVo, 66.2% of respondents would prefer to watch all ads before a programme begins; only 33.8% prefer ad breaks throughout. That is a material asymmetry for platform product teams setting ad insertion policies and for buyers selecting inventory types.

Home screen advertising is becoming a scale surface. According to TiVo, more than one-third of respondents noticed excessive ad loads on their smart TV's home screen - a figure that speaks to how aggressively some platforms have monetized the pre-content experience. Separately, 65.8% noticed a TV show or movie promoted on their home screen, and a substantial proportion of pay TV subscribers rate themselves as likely to make a direct in-TV purchase from advertising they see there.

Why streaming viewers are shifting to ad-supported tiers at scale, and what that means for planning in 2026, is examined in detail in PPC Land's analysis of ad-supported adoption trends.

Geir Skaaden, chief products and services officer at Xperi, said: "Consumers are watching more video than ever before, but they're enjoying that content across an increasingly fragmented mix of platforms and services. 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."

Alan Wolk, co-founder and lead analyst at TVREV, commented: "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."

Methodology

The survey was designed by TiVo and conducted in Q4 2025 by a leading third-party survey service. The sample covers 4,493 adults aged 18 and older in the United States and Canada, split between pay TV subscribers and broadband-only subscribers. TiVo has run this survey quarterly or biannually since 2012. The report covers SVOD, TVOD, AVOD, OTT apps, content discovery, connected devices, and emerging technologies.

Timeline

  • Since 2012 - TiVo has conducted the Video Trends Report survey quarterly or biannually, covering adults 18 and older in the US and Canada
  • Q4 2021 - Average daily viewing: 4.5 hours; local content 22.8% of total viewing time
  • Q4 2022 - Average daily viewing falls to 4.2 hours; companion app usage at 28.2%
  • Q4 2023 - Daily viewing recovers to 4.7 hours; local content at 23.4% of total viewing time
  • Q4 2024 - Daily viewing dips to 4.5 hours; 65.2% AVOD/FAST adoption; sports viewers relying on pay TV at 40.3%; sports services needed per season: 2.4; household services: below 10
  • Q4 2025 - Survey period; 4,493 adults aged 18+ in US and Canada participate
  • Q4 2025 - Daily viewing jumps to 5.2 hours, up nearly 1 hour year-over-year
  • Q4 2025 - Average household services return to 10+, comprising approximately 6.71 paid and 3.63 non-paid
  • Q4 2025 - Monthly entertainment spending rises to $161.17
  • Q4 2025 - AVOD/FAST adoption reaches 70%, up five percentage points year-over-year
  • Q4 2025 - FAST users watch average 7.5 channels, up more than 2 channels year-over-year
  • Q4 2025 - 58.6% of sports viewers rely on pay TV as primary sports source, up from 40.3% in Q4 2024
  • Q4 2025 - Sports viewers need 2.7 services to follow a favorite sport, up from 2.4
  • Q4 2025 - 68.6% of sports watchers say it has gotten harder to watch sports
  • Q4 2025 - Local content reaches 29.4% of total viewing time, up from 24.3% in Q4 2024
  • Q4 2025 - Smart TV ownership at 74.2% of respondents; 56.9% of non-viewing device time spent on home screen
  • Q4 2025 - 83.9% of respondents subscribe to at least one SVOD service, down from 85.8% in Q4 2024
  • Q4 2025 - 30.9% of SVOD cancellations driven by price increases
  • Q4 2025 - 3% of respondents spontaneously note using AI tools such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini for content discovery - a first in the survey's history
  • Q4 2025 - 46.2% of car owners report watching video in-vehicle, up from 44.4% in Q4 2024
  • Q4 2025 - 66.2% of respondents prefer all ads before a programme begins; 33.8% prefer mid-programme ad breaks
  • June 4, 2026 - TiVo publishes Q4 2025 Video Trends Report

Summary

Who: TiVo, a wholly owned subsidiary of Xperi Inc. (NYSE: XPER), conducted the survey and published the report. The survey covered 4,493 adults aged 18 and older in the United States and Canada. Quotes came from Geir Skaaden, chief products and services officer at Xperi, and Alan Wolk, co-founder and lead analyst at TVREV.

What: The Q4 2025 Video Trends Report documents the steepest single-year rise in daily video consumption since 2012, from 4.5 hours to 5.2 hours per day. Key findings include: household services returned to 10+; monthly spending rose to $161.17; AVOD/FAST adoption reached 70%; pay TV became the primary sports source for 58.6% of sports viewers, up from 40.3% the prior year; sports viewers need 2.7 services per season to follow their sport; local content reached 29.4% of total viewing time; SVOD subscriptions fell to 83.9%; price hikes drove 30.9% of cancellations; and 3% of respondents used AI tools such as ChatGPT for content discovery for the first time.

When: The survey was conducted during the fourth quarter of 2025. The report was published on June 4, 2026.

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

Why: The findings matter for advertisers, media buyers, and platform operators because they document a specific and unexpected reversal: pay TV's sports advantage is growing, not shrinking. The 18-point rise in pay TV as the primary sports source, combined with the increase in services needed per season and the high proportion of sports viewers who cannot access all their team's games, challenges assumptions underlying CTV sports rights strategies. Simultaneously, the AVOD/FAST adoption figure and home screen dwell time data expand the available programmatic surface - while the 66.2% pre-roll preference and excessive-ad-frequency complaints give buyers and platforms specific guidance on format and frequency parameters.