A major new survey of consumer video subscriptions offers the TV industry some mixed messages, with data showing ongoing drastic declines in pay TV subscriptions and antenna usage coupled with notable increases in streaming.
The “State of Media, Entertainment, and Tech: Subscriptions 2025” report, from Horowitz Research, found that homes with access to live TV channels declined from 32% in 2020 to 19% in 2025. Even more precipitous declines were recorded for traditional pay TV providers, with the number of homes with MVPD subscriptions falling from 81% in 2020 to 44% in 2025.
Meanwhile, the new Horowitz data showed the share of homes with SVOD subscriptions rose from 70% in 2020 to 81% in 2025, and households with free streaming services jumped from 52% to 70% in the same period.
Virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs), like Sling TV and YouTube TV, declined from being in 29% of homes in 2020 to 23% in 2025.
Over the last decade, that has dramatically changed both the mix of video services and the way those services are accessed. In 2015 nearly half of all homes (47%) only had a MVPD subscription and only 7% of all homes were streaming only. In 2025 nearly half of all homes (49%) were streaming only, while only 11% only had a pay TV subscription. About one third (33%) had both MVPD and streaming subscriptions in 2025, down from 40% in 2015. The homes with no video subscriptions stayed virtually flat, rising from 6% in 2015 to 7% in 2025.
In terms of homes with TV antennas, the Horowitz study found that they skewed towards lower income homes and older households. Antenna were used in 26% of homes headed by someone 50 or older compared to 19% for the overall population in 2025. Only 9% of homes with incomes of greater than $100,000 a year had antenna while 26% of those with incomes below $50,000 had antenna. About 28% of all homes without MVPD subscriptions had antennas but only 10% of homes headed by someone 18 to 34 had access to live TV channels via an antenna.
The report also provides detailed information on how much consumers are spending on subscriptions, the most popular streaming services, subscription bunding, broadband subscriptions, opportunities in the area of smart homes and a wide variety of other subjects.
The report is based on a survey of 2,200 consumers 18+ who are decision makers about subscription services in their home. Data have been weighted to ensure results are representative of the overall U.S. population. The survey was conducted in January and February of 2025.
More information is available here.
