Ampere Analysis expects streaming services' content spend to grow 6% in 2026 to $101B, crossing $100B for the first time, and overall content spend to grow 2%
Context & Ripple Effects
Ampere had already projected that streamers would overtake commercial broadcasters in content spending in 2025, following an earlier period in which the original-TV spending boom was expected to slow sharply. The 2026 forecast indicates that the spending lead is becoming more established, even as total content expenditure grows modestly.
The forecast also arrives as ad-supported streaming has gained scale: Ampere previously put the U.S. streaming ad market at $17 billion for 2025, alongside growing adoption of ad tiers. That gives services an additional route to support programming budgets beyond subscriptions.
First-order effects
- Streaming services are projected to raise content spending 6% to $101 billion in 2026, making them the principal source of incremental content investment in a market where overall spending rises 2%.
- Studios, producers, talent and rights holders face a healthier demand outlook from streaming buyers than from the content market overall, while services must fund higher programming outlays.
Second-order effects
- With overall spending growing more slowly than streaming spend, commercial broadcasters and other non-streaming buyers may face greater competition for attractive projects and rights.
- The expanding base of ad-tier users makes advertising a more consequential funding source for programming, reinforcing the importance of the projected growth of U.S. streaming ad revenue to services' content economics.
Third-order effects
- If the gap between streaming and overall content-spend growth persists, commissioning power will continue to shift toward platforms that can combine subscriptions, advertising and distribution bundles.
- The pattern points to a more selective content market: aggregate budgets need not boom for streaming platforms to gain influence over what gets financed and how rights are priced.
The trend: Streaming is moving from a high-growth challenger into the content industry's central spending engine, with advertising and bundled distribution helping sustain investment as subscription growth matures.