Are you having a hard time finding a streaming TV service that makes you “happy” in 2026?
Between perpetual price hikes and changing content offerings, finding a video streaming service that makes everyone in your home satisfied seems increasingly difficult.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) just revealed its annual findings on the streaming TV industry.
And as you peruse the results, you may be surprised to learn that some of the live TV services we’ve come to associate with “streaming TV” are no longer considered a part of the “Video Streaming Service” space by the ACSI.
Instead, live TV streamers like YouTube TV are now considered part of the “Subscription TV Service” subset that includes legacy cable TV providers.
As you may have guessed, that does impact the rankings in the 2026 survey.
Let’s look at this year’s findings.
4 Streaming Services Top 2026 ACSI Rankings
Each year, streaming TV is assessed by the ACSI among many other consumer-based product categories.
But as I hinted above, the ACSI has significantly changed how it classifies the streaming TV market.
Video on-demand streaming services like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video are now joined by free streaming services like Pluto TV and Tubi to comprise the “Video Streaming Services” category. And live TV subscriptions like YouTube TV and Fubo are now considered part of the “Subscription TV Service” category.
With those category distinctions in mine: There’s a four-way tie atop the list of best “Video Streaming Services” for 2026.
Amazon Prime Video
Paramount+
YouTube Premium
Pluto TV (debuting in the survey as a free service)
Each winner had a survey score of 79, 1% short of the 80 score that won in 2025.
The Roku Channel (78) and Tubi (77), which are two of our top free streaming suggestions (alongside Pluto TV), also debuted near the top of the list.
ESPN+ was one of the top climbers year-over-year, moving up 4% after ESPN launched its direct-to-consumer service in August 2025.
Netflix, Peacock and Apple TV were three of the notable fallers this year after increasing subscription prices.
The 2025 survey winner was a three-way tie between Paramount+, Peacock and YouTube Premium with a score of 80.
It’s also worth noting that the live TV streamers that were moved out of this category did not win in their debut year in the “Subscription TV Service” category. That honor went to Verizon Fios.
Understanding the Rankings
As an industry, the Video Streaming Services category fell 1% in overall customer satisfaction this year. This was in tandem with Subscription TV Services posting the strongest customer satisfaction gains of any category measured in the 2026 study.
That’s significant because it includes many legacy subscription models that many had “left for dead” in the race to get subscriptions for specialized video streaming services.
Are we seeing a shift in consumer appetite?
“Content and technology improved across the board this year, yet in most of these industries, satisfaction still declined or barely moved. That’s because a better product is the baseline now; it doesn’t move the needle,” Forrest Morgeson, Associate Professor of Marketing at Michigan State University and Director of Research Emeritus at the ACSI, said via the study’s press release. “What moves satisfaction is making the whole experience simpler. Fewer accounts, easier billing, less time managing subscriptions. Subscription TV figured that out. Video streaming and sports betting are still adding features while customers are asking for less complexity. Until that changes, more features won’t translate into higher satisfaction.”
It’s worth noting that though Subscription TV scores are on the rise and Video Streaming scores are on a slight decline, the Video Streaming satisfaction score is still 5% higher than Subscription TV in 2026.
To me, that indicates there’s still work to be done by streamers in both categories as customers seek simpler content consumption and more stable pricing.
How did your favorite streaming TV service fare in this survey? Do you agree with the rankings? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the Clark.com community.
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