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Americans continue to move away from bingeing on TV, while the podcast boom appears to be over for now

Wise Up PR

Jul 16, 2024 — 5 min read

Nearly a quarter (24%) of Americans don’t watch any live TV, while consumers move away from Netflix after its password crackdown
Consumers also cut down on music streaming, with Apple Music suffering the most
Digital content subscriptions also slump this year seeing a decline to 29%

Attest, a leading consumer research platform, today releases the findings from its fifth annual US Media Consumption Report. The 2024 edition provides insights into how Americans’ habits across television, audio, news, and social media continue to evolve.

TV & Streaming Trends

(Most) consumers are spending less time watching, while live TV continues to plummet

Attest’s research finds that the amount of TV that Americans watch is declining. The percentage of people watching TV of any type for more than three hours a day has dropped by -3 percentage points this year to 61%, while binge-watching sessions of five plus hours daily have also declined by -3 percentage points to 28%
There has also been a steady drift away from live TV for the last number of years and this year is no different. Nearly one in four Americans (24%) don’t watch any live TV, a +4 percentage point increase on last year and consumers aged 35-44 are most likely to have abandoned live TV.

Streaming wars: Password crackdown dents Netflix numbers, Disney+ also suffers

Since Netflix got tough on password sharing and scrapped its Basic ad-free tier fewer Americans are regularly accessing the platform. The number of consumers who watch Netflix at least once a week has declined by -9 percentage points to 62%. This loss has occurred across all age groups, with the deepest loss felt in the 35-44 age group (-13 percentage points to 64%).
Disney+ is also feeling the pain after hiking the cost of its ad-free plan by $3 in October 2023. The move appears to have led to a loss of viewers, with a -7 percentage point decline in Americans accessing the platform at least once a week (to 31%). Similar to the losses seen at Netflix, it’s Millennials who have defected: the percentage of consumers aged 28-43 who watch Disney+ has dropped by a considerable -13 percentage points to 38%.
YouTube TV enjoyed a boost in users last year, but in 2024, viewer numbers have slipped back down. The percentage of consumers using the live TV streaming service weekly has declined by -8 percentage points to 17%.
Overall, Netflix retains its title as America’s most popular streaming service, with 62% of consumers using it weekly, followed by Hulu (45%), Amazon Prime (45%) and Disney+ (31%).

Audio Trends

Americans aren’t streaming music as frequently & Apple Music declines in use

Music streaming has been on an upward trajectory since Attest began tracking it, but this year it’s taken a dip. The percentage of US consumers who listen to streamed music daily has decreased by -8 percentage points to 36%. Meanwhile, the percentage who say they never listen to streamed music has increased by +6 percentage points to 19%.
Apple Music is really feeling the sting from this downward trend in streaming music. Just as it was starting to make gains, the platform has suffered a -9 percentage point decline in regular users to 20%. It’s the biggest loss among a slew of losses for music streamers and puts Apple Music back behind Amazon Music (23%). YouTube Music (at 37%) and Spotify (36%) remain neck-and-neck as America’s favorite music streaming services.

The podcast boom runs out of steam, while radio becomes less popular

The percentage of consumers listening to podcasts hit a high last year, but 2024 fails to deliver any growth for the medium. Just under 39% of Americans listen to podcasts weekly, which is a -2 percentage point decline.
Radio has held its own during the rise of the music streamers but could its star finally be on the wane? In 2024, daily radio listening has declined by -4 percentage points to 32%. While the medium is still going strong with older demographics, a quarter (25%) of consumers aged 18-24 say they never listen to the radio and only 16% listen daily.

Americans pull back on prolonged social media use, while consumers leave X behind

Since 2022, Attest has found that the proportion of US consumers using social media for over 2+ hours a day has been in decline. This trend continues this year with a -4 percentage point drop to 41% who spend more than two hours on these platforms.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, out of all generations, Gen Z spends the most time on social media, yet 15% of this segment will be on such platforms for a whopping 5-6 hours on a daily basis.
It would appear that the changes to X, including a high-profile rebrand has driven consumers away. The number of Americans who never use X (formerly Twitter) has increased by +7 percentage points to 50% since last year. At the same time, daily usership has decreased from 23% to 20%.

TikTok loses traction with Gen Z, while young consumers use Snapchat less frequently

Snapchat has suffered a -7 percentage point loss in daily US users, to 20%. The platform has become notably less appealing to users aged 18-24: last year, half of this age group used Snapchat every day, but that figure has fallen by -18 percentage points to 31%. It means the platform is now only marginally more popular with this age group than Facebook (27% use it daily).
One assumption might be that the falling numbers of Gen Z on Snapchat were due to a migration to TikTok, but that would also be wrong. Consumers aged 18-24 are also reducing their use of TikTok: the percentage who use it daily has declined by -9 percentage points. However, this figure still stands at 47%, meaning Gen Z remains the platform’s biggest audience.
TikTok is trending down in general, with an +8 percentage point increase in non-users (to 43%). While the exact reason for this is unknown, it could perhaps be tied to its uncertain future in the US market.

Media (Print & Digital) Trends

Consumers are cutting back on digital content subscriptions, print continues its decline

Digital content subscriptions have experienced a -5 percentage point decline in 2024 to 30%. Consumers aged 35-44 have cut back the most (-20 percentage points to 31%). However, losses have been offset by gains from consumers aged 18-24. Gen Z has bucked the trend by increasing their subscriptions to digital content by +17 percentage points to 50%.
Consumers are accessing digital news less regularly also - there’s been a -4 percentage point decline in consumers reading digital news daily (to 25%).
Weekly readership of printed newspapers has decreased by -10 percentage points to 23%. The decline is driven by consumers in the 35-44 age bracket, where there has been a huge decline of -31 percentage points to 21%.