Americans’ new TV habit: Subscribe. Watch. Cancel. Repeat.
Americans’ new TV habit: Subscribe. Watch. Cancel. Repeat.
Many more people are jumping from one streaming subscription to another, a behavior that could have big implications for the entertainment industry.
Many more people are jumping from one streaming subscription to another, a behavior that could have big implications for the entertainment industry.
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Americans are getting increasingly impulsive about hitting the cancellation button on their streaming services. More than 29 million — about a quarter of domestic paying streaming subscribers — have canceled three or more services over the last two years, according to Antenna, a subscription research firm. And the numbers are rising fast.
The data suggests a sharp shift in consumer behavior — far from the cable era, when viewers largely stuck with a single provider, as well as the early days of the so-called streaming wars, when people kept adding services without culling or jumping around.
Among these nomadic subscribers, some are taking advantage of how easy it is, with a monthly contract and simple click of a button, to hopscotch from one service to the next. Indeed, these users can be fickle — a third of them resubscribe to the canceled service within six months, according to Antenna’s research.
“In three years, this went from a very niche behavior to an absolute mainstream part of the market,” said Jonathan Carson, the chief executive of Antenna.
I really don't understand why streaming business are so surprised. They are providing television for rent and users are renting it plain and simple.They seem to think they are entitled to lengthy subscriptions from users when in reality they aren't providing a service that's even stable or worth it.
It just makes economic sense.
The data suggests a sharp shift in consumer behavior — far from the cable era, when viewers largely stuck with a single provider, as well as the early days of the so-called streaming wars, when people kept adding services without culling or jumping around.
Yeah, turns out when the monopolies are eliminated, people get more competition and a better deal on the consumer end. It's why I'll never understand people who say streaming services became as bad as cable.
One option for slowing the churn, executives think, is to bring back some element of the cable bundle by selling streaming services together. Executives believe consumers would be less inclined to cancel a package that offered services from multiple companies.
No, I'm less likely to cancel a service that's worth what you charge for it. Be happy you got one month out of me, and if you want more, offer me more value. Putting serialized shows out week by week doesn't do it for me either, because I'm just going to wait until the season is done to start watching it anyway.
Price sensitivity is also a factor. Americans with a streaming subscription are spending an average of $61 a month for four services, an increase from $48 a year ago, according to a new study by Deloitte. The increase was due to higher prices, not additional services. Nearly half the people surveyed said they would cancel their favorite streaming service if monthly prices went up another $5, the study said.
Mystery solved.
So I was thinking about subbing to Netflix again to watch something, and they had already deleted my account (it’s been about a year). So I went to my email to just try and verify that I was trying to login using the correct email address.
While doing this I found a statement from 2018. The price of Premium Netflix then was $13. Now it’s $23 I think. And they cracked down on password sharing so the service isn’t even as good, really.
Every one of these services has raised prices over and over, boiling us frogs in the pot, so it’s no wonder everyone now just subs for a month or two then bounces. It’s smart. The companies here are the stupid ones, chasing the all-mighty “line-go-up” quarterly statement MBA shit when they could have had loyal customers for years and years. I think I had a Netflix account for at least a decade or more (back when it was just mailing DVDs) until they started jumping the price by a few bucks every six months. It’s just not worth it to keep services around waiting for a show or two to come back.
In three years, this went from a very niche behavior to an absolute mainstream part of the market
It’s because of the fracturing of the marketplace. For a while there were only a few major Film/TV streaming services. Netflix and Hulu, then HBO and Amazon, and a handful of niche or genre platforms.
Then around the pandemic time, every network and their mother decided to pull their licensing to start their own streaming platform or several. The platforms all cost as much or more as before, but you need more of them to watch the different IP you are interested in.What the studios don’t realize (or won’t publicly admit) is that instead of replacing cable TV, they have effectively recreated the video rental industry.
Americans are getting increasingly impulsive about hitting the cancellation button on their streaming services
GOOD.
This is a good thing. No matter how they try to paint it. I only stuck with some when interest and content waned because I was grandfathered in. When Netflix etc. took that away it made dumping them an easy decision. Not an “impulsive” one. There’s no point in being loyal to these companies. Especially when they pulled this shit after previously they claimed we were locked in on that pricing and started forcing ads. Greedy bastards.
It's the only practical option. Unless we get cable like packages (which I wouldn't be surprised to see soon), nobody wants to pay for some 10+ subscriptions for 1-2 shows on each platform. But if you cycle a couple subscriptions every few months, it's the same (cheaper) cost year round, but you get all the content you want.
Having described it, I think that's probably why we're seeing more and more shows returning back to weekly releases - that model keeps the subscribers on the hook for longer. We can always just wait till it's done, of course, but there's a number of factors that can pressure viewers into remaining subscribed.
Not a chance that's gonna last. The next step is you must buy 3,6, or 12 months at a time. We already have streaming services doing channels and ad breaks. Cableless TV will be the circle completing.
I've been waiting for the services to start requiring a year commitment or something equally dumb to prevent this behavior. I subscribe under two conditions : There is something I want to watch, and all the episodes are available. Once I've finished the content I subbed for, what is my incentive to stick around, exactly?
Unfortunately for streamers they can only churn out a season of my favorite shows every 2-3 years, and I'm not really about paying for availability to content that doesn't interest me. Especially while those rates have doubled and tripled.
Cancelled all services a couple months ago that offer an ad+sub tier. I'm ok with ads for free or sub, but mix them and that kind of greediness like cable TV i can't abide. It's given me more time for other hobbies I'd rather be doing anyways.
[Streaming services raising prices, producing garbage, canceling good shows, losing access to shows, straight-up deleting entire shows for a tax write off.]
"Why have consumers suddenly changed in only three years??? Inexplicable!"
That's too much effort. Easier to just not watch anything at all.
Netflix bungled this. They could have said “starting on January 1, 2022, no new accounts will be able to share passwords between households.”
No one would cancel. Some would probably go to a cheaper tier but would keep their accounts active forever. Plus, people who share accounts don’t cancel because their family members might be watching. Netflix’s churn rate would have embarrassed HBO and Disney.
But no, they are chasing shortsighted, anti-customer gains and now are reaping what they sowed.
Well, the true economics of the subject considering the entire market are than a 1 month VPN subscription is cheaper than the cheapest subscription of a single one of these services.
It would be interesting to see the graph of VPN # of active subscriptions next to streaming service # of active subscriptions for the last 2 years.
Cancel all services
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Enjoy lifeDuring the writer's strike, I watched an interview with an industry insider and member of the WGA. He mentioned that it's been well known to the industry that people are subscribing for one month to binge watch and then unsubscribe. I was a little surprised to hear this was already such a common practice and the industry was, in part, renegotiating contracts with this in mind. Personally, I've been doing a version of this since Netflix first started online streaming.
I don't currently have any streaming service plans in large part because they keep increasing the prices. These services are fine for the prices they used to be but they keep raising prices. Perhaps the content is better but it's not like my life is impacted by a slightly better tv show or movie - an hour of content is an hour of content. If you want to make better stuff, create another service or offer a higher subscription tier. I'm voting with my wallet and I'm not allowing social pressures to dictate where I get my entertainment. Let's not lose sight that this is entertainment we're talking about.
The other issues I have with them, incidentally, are poor content and poor user experiences. I cancelled my Netflix subscription because they implemented auto-playing trailers. I've stopped using Apple TV entirely because they too have implemented auto-playing trailers.
At this point, getting up to change the channel with a rotary knob might be a better experience than most of these streaming platforms. In fact, I've been watching a lot of Pluto and Tubi lately. They have ads but they're relatively minimal and they're placed in appropriate places in the program.
🏴☠️
… ⛵️
I skip the subscribe part. Just watch and repeat.
I’m going back to buying DVDs.
My issue is that none of these streaming services have a backlog of content large enough to be worth it, and they only add one good show every few years. I can just pirate the one good thing they put out, and then I don't have to pay for the heaps of trash they've shatted onto their streaming service.
There are months, I don’t even watch anything. I’ll subscribe when the need arises. When the need subsides because I’m busy. I’ll cancel. The idea that I’ll just pay on autopilot went away when they raised prices and made it impossible for me to share the subscription.
All the smart people subscribing to things they could be getting for free.
Sounds like streaming services should start doing automatic credit checks on sign up. Then jumping around would result in lowering credit score, just like jumping around cell providers. And they should all do it around the same time coincidentally.
Streaming service execs, I'm ready to accept an exorbitant consulting fee for this insight. 💵🫲