More than half a million pay-TV services were suspended in Britain , mostly to cut costs for families, with 58% of households now having at least one paid streaming service, a report revealed. study.
A total of 1.51 million services were canceled during the first three months of 2022, detailed the market research firm Kantar. The cutting off of these services was attributed to “saving money”, and instead households budgeted for higher prices and energy bills.
“Evidence from these findings suggests that British households are now proactively looking for ways to save,” said Dominic Sunnebo, global insight director for Kantar’s Worldpanel Division, who also said this recent research would be “sobering” for the UK. industry.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and lockdown measures led to surges in subscriptions for platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime.
Kantar’s research notes that households were “beginning to seriously prioritize where and how their disposable income is spent,” with an upward trend in sight.
The researchers detailed that the proportion of consumers planning to cancel subscriptions stating that the main reason is “wanting to save money” had risen to its highest level at 38%, up from 29% in the last three months of 2021.
Netflix and Amazon, the last to “leave”
Although “dropout” rates increased across almost all streaming platforms, there was a “clear difference” in the number of cancellations between Netflix and Amazon and other offerings.
“Netflix and Amazon can be seen as ‘hygiene’ subscriptions for Brits – they are the last services to go when households are forced to prioritize spending.”
Instead, “Disney, Now TV, Discovery+ and BritBox all saw significant increases in churn rates quarter over quarter,” Kantar said.
