Advanced Television

Report: Why HBO Max viewers are most satisfied with its AVoD service

August 12, 2022

Which ad-supported streaming services are viewers most satisfied with? A new Whip Media report, which included survey responses from about 2,500 US viewers, looked at that question.

In particular, viewers were most satisfied with HBO Max’s ad-supported experience. Meanwhile, Hulu’s experience – due to a high level of viewer annoyance with their ads, left something to be desired.

Key takeaways from Whip Media’s report:

1) Respondents reported a particularly negative experience with Hulu, citing it as more annoying than users of other platforms. More than two-thirds of respondents (67 per cent) said they were “kind of” or “very” annoyed by Hulu’s commercials. That easily lapped the next closest service, Peacock, which had 51 per cent of respondents say they were “kind of” or “very” annoyed; HBO Max drew the most positive marks and had only 38 per cent of respondents who were irritated by its commercials.


2) HBO Max leads the pack in terms of viewer satisfaction with their ad-supported service, which only comes in a few points shy of its ad-free service (92 per cent compared to 95 per cent). Why? One big reason is because HBO Max was the only service that users reported feeling the amount of commercials was less than expected. Their ad loads are very low at only 4 minutes per hour and HBO originals on the ad-supported tier do not carry any commercials. Discovery, on the other hand, comes in last, with 64 per cent of respondents being satisfied with the ad-supported tier.

3) Netflix has made news in recent months with their plans to add an ad-supported tier, but current subscribers don’t look to be very interested in switching to a cheaper Netflix with commercials, once the option is available. Overall, 72 per cent of respondents who are current Netflix subscribers said they were “unlikely” or “very unlikely” to switch to an ad-supported Netflix tier. (Granted, one caveat being the respondents did not have a price point to base this off of yet.)

For a look at Whip Media’s full report, you can access a free PDF by CLICKING HERE.

Categories: Advertising, Articles, Consumer Behaviour, Research, VOD

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