Online video streaming services, including Netflix and Amazon Prime, appear to be riding out the wave of cancellations hitting subscription schemes, with consumers seemingly preferring to cut other expenses than their own entertainment at home.
That is according to research by Informa Tech-owned analyst and consultancy Omdia, which calculates that currently, the average UK household has 2.6 pay subscription services at home, 2.0 subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services and 0.6 pay-TV packages.
Despite its most recent results showing a decline in global subscriptions, Netflix remains the UK’s favourite video service. Omdia noted that the most popular services in the UK currently were Netflix 15.5 million subscriptions; Amazon Prime Video, 10 million subscriptions; Disney+ with 7.5 million subscriptions.
However, the firm notes that customer churn has increased significantly in the last 12 months, with 45% more subscription video services being cancelled during the period, while overall there were 20% more consumers cancelling their services compared to last year.
Even so, counteracting this trend, the number of services cancelled and resubscribed to in the last 12 months has grown higher, by 84%, meaning that although more people are churning, many are subsequently resubscribing.
The analysis flies in the face of a recent Kantar study which revealed more than half a million cancellations were made to save money in Q1.
The biggest growth in the last six months came from Disney which increased by 21 %; Now TV 18 %; Netflix 8%; and Amazon 5%. Those with four streaming video services per home are the ones churning less than those who took more than seven SVOD services.
Commenting on the research, Omdia senior director Maria Rua Aguete said: “The number of people paying for video services in the UK has increased 11% over the last year and quarter on quarter since April 2021.
“With the lowest churn rate across all streaming video services and highest lifetime value per costumer, Netflix will continue and surpass Disney by 2026.”
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