With the best streaming services, you can watch all the great TV shows and movies that aren’t on cable (on services that seek to replace cable). And after The Last of Us, the first big new show of the year, premiered on our favorite channel (HBO Max), the giant followed it up with season 4 of the already great Succession. The good news is that when HBO Max and Discovery Plus join forces, it won’t cost us a dime (at first).
Also, Netflix will make it harder for people to share passwords beginning in 2023. This is the latest way the company is trying to make more money, even though it might make customers mad. We’re still waiting for it to get from Canada to the U.S., which is a shame.
We also like Apple T.V. Plus, which has greatly improved over the past few years by adding great shows like “Shrunken” and “Black Bird.” On the other hand, the price hike for Apple T.V. made it $2 more per month, and some Sling Blue customers got a higher bill and one more (very big) channel.
But these services are only half of what streaming is all about. Smart T.V.s and the best streaming devices, like Rokus and Chromecasts, are taking the place of cable boxes as they slowly die out.
How much goes into streaming services?
According to Deloitte’s latest Digital Media Trends survey, “subscription fatigue” is getting worse among consumers, making it harder for direct-to-streaming video providers to keep customers.
According to Deloitte’s 17th annual Digital Media Trends report, as competition for streaming video keeps getting tougher, subscription growth rates have slowed, and churn rates have gone up. A survey by Deloitte found that, on average, people in the U.S. pay $48 per month for subscription video services. In addition, about half of the people surveyed agreed that they “pay too much” for SVOD services, and about a third said they plan to cut down on the number of subscriptions they have for entertainment.
In Deloitte’s Digital Media Trends survey, people were asked for the first time to put a dollar amount on how much they spend on subscription videos. Kevin Westcott, Deloitte’s U.S. technology, media, and telecom leader, says that the number of SVOD services per U.S. household has stayed around four for the last few years. However, the inflation rate has been higher than the rate of price increases in the sector.
Westcott said that when the price of gas, food, and housing goes up, people rethink their extra spending.
About half of the people surveyed (47%) said that their current financial situation has caused them to make at least one change to their entertainment subscriptions, such as canceling a paid service to save money, switching to a free version of a service with ads, or bundling services together.
According to the study done in the fall of 2022, the average number of people who stopped paying for subscription video-on-demand services over a six-month period was about 44%. This is the number of people who said they had stopped paying for an SVOD service in the previous six months. That’s a lot higher than the U.S. churn rate of 37% over six months that Deloitte reported in 2022. In the most recent study, the six-month churn rates for Gen Z and millennials go up to 57% and 62%, respectively.
Westcott said that subscription video services need to adopt and speed up new strategies to reduce churn. For example, original T.V. shows and movies are great at getting new customers but could be better at keeping them. “The race to keep adding customers by commissioning and buying really expensive content won’t work on its own,” he said. Westcott said that instead, SVOD services should put their money into making their content more varied. For example, they could add short-form videos, music, and games made by users. Netflix has already started working on a plan to add games to its main subscription service.
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According to the 2023 Digital Media Trends survey by Deloitte, millennials are most likely to have changed their digital media subscriptions because of the economy. In fact, millennials spend an average of $54 per month on paid streaming video services, which is more than any other generation. In addition, a study by Deloitte found that almost 45% of millennials have “churned and returned” to a paid SVOD service. This means they canceled and renewed a paid subscription within six months.
What the numbers say
More than half of the people surveyed (54%) said they often watch a T.V. show or movie on a streaming video service after hearing about it on social media. In addition, almost three-quarters of Gen Z and millennials said they do the same thing.
At least 32% of the people surveyed said that they think online experiences can “meaningfully replace” in-person ones. This goes up to 50% for Gen Z and millennials.
About 40% of the people who answered the survey agreed that it’s hard to tell when user-made videos are “sponsored” or contain an ad. However, nearly half of the consumers (46%) say they are more likely to trust a brand if a product from that brand has been reviewed by an online creator they trust.
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