Gracenote: Fragmentation Affecting Consumer Happiness

Based on a survey of consumers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Brazil and Mexico, 33 percent of streaming users feel that content and service fragmentation negatively impacts their TV experience, per Gracenote’s 2025 State of Play report.

Among the 25-to-34 set, that concentration rises to 40 percent. And despite general love for streaming among consumers in different countries and age groups—75 percent say they enjoy their streaming experiences—45 percent say the streaming experience is overwhelming and 46 percent say it is getting harder to find the content they want to watch.

OTT channels are amplifying distribution fragmentation, Gracenote says. For example, to watch every game in a single NFL season, viewers would need NFL Sunday Ticket, ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, ESPN, Prime Video, Netflix, NFL Network and Peacock. In addition, many leagues sell the rights to individual games at the market level, further congesting overall video distribution and presenting more challenges for audiences looking for a specific sports event.

On average, consumers globally spend 14 minutes searching for what to watch. In the U.S., the amount of time is 12 minutes, up from 10.5 minutes in mid-2023. French viewers spend 26 minutes searching content, an amount nearly equal to the length of an entire program episode.

This negatively affects their overall viewing experience. 19 percent of people will abandon a viewing session completely if their content search is not successful. This jumps to 29 percent for viewers in the 18-to-24 age range. Going further, 49 percent are willing to cancel a service based on difficulty finding what they want to watch.

Gracenote’s report indicates that viewers are interested in a single guide presenting content information across all services and want platforms to tell them where to find specific programs wherever they are available. 66 percent of survey respondents specified interest in each of these capabilities.

“Effective search, discovery and recommendation capabilities that enable platforms to connect viewers to the content they’ll enjoy most are more critical than ever,” said Tyler Bell, senior VP of product at Gracenote. “Organizations that deliver these capabilities will simplify the fragmentation of content and channels, which impacts viewers’ entertainment experiences. In doing so, they can capitalize on opportunities to become the first and most valuable viewing sources for their users.”