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April | Unified Streaming Power Index

State of Streaming
RankCompanyEST. HH. Reach % CPMAd Mins. per HourApril's Take
1Amazon Prime Video86%$$4-6The only platform where the ad impression and the purchase confirmation live in the same closed loop — and that gap over every other platform on this list is widening, not narrowing.
2Roku (Universe)99%$6-8We only scored the channel last quarter and missed on our assessment. 100 million households, a 60.5% advertising gross margin, and the home screen every other platform on this list pays to appear on.
3Peacock43%$$$$4-5The only platform in this index where what the market is paying and what the attention is worth tell the same story — and with the World Cup arriving in July, that story gets louder.
4HBO Max26%$$$$4-6The lowest disclosed ad load among premium platforms against content heat that matches or beats Netflix — the arbitrage is still open, and the market is closing it slower than it should.
5Netflix27%$$$$$4-5Ad spend grew 26% last year as buyers absorbed the highest cost per thousand in streaming — the mobile redesign and video podcast exclusives are building a second audience the current price floor has not yet reached.
6Disney+74% (w/ Hulu)$$$$3-5Verts is the first credible vertical video infrastructure play in subscription streaming — the measurement standard does not exist yet, but the platform that owns the format when it does will own the inventory category.
7Hulu74% (w/ Disney+)$$$7-9$4.69 billion in ad spend buys you seven to nine ad minutes per hour and an audience that rates ad relevance below the industry average — the gap between spend rank and composite rank is not closing until the ad load does.
8Tubi49%$4-6Four to six ad minutes per hour, a World Cup audience funnel already in motion, and the only free platform in this index that reached profitability without a content acquisition budget — the cheapest attention in premium streaming and the trajectory is up.
9Paramount+38%$$$2-4The lowest ad load in the subscription tier at two to four minutes per hour is structurally underpriced — every buyer who passes on Paramount+ in favor of a higher-clutter platform is leaving attention quality on the table.
10Pluto TV79%$7-979% broadband household reach at the lowest cost per thousand in the tier is a reach argument the market understands — what the market has not priced is that 7–9 ad minutes per hour on linear channels is eroding the attention quality that reach is supposed to deliver.
11ESPN23%$$8–12Elite sports heat against a documented ad experience problem — commercial breaks on the streaming app run longer than cable, live feeds lag behind the linear signal, and the platform acknowledged the issue in October without resolving it.
12Samsung TV Plus29%$8–12 30 million U.S. households and automatic content recognition data moat that no app-based competitor can replicate — the platform that knows what every Samsung household watches across every input, not just its own.
13LG Channels20%$8–12The Anoki Context IQ brand safety layer added real-time contextual targeting to live news inventory this month — the OEM tier's ad experience quality is improving, and LG is moving fastest.
14Vizio13%$8–12Vizio's WatchFree+ puts Walmart's purchase data behind the same glass as the ad impression — the commerce signal no other smart television manufacturer in this index can match, and the market has not priced it yet.
15Xumo Play49%$7–10The only disclosed ad load in the free streaming tier — 7 to 10 minutes per hour confirmed by Xumo's own leadership — backed by Comcast and Charter infrastructure and the FreeWheel ad stack that powers premium video buying at scale.