Platforms are struggling to retain customers in the US as net subscriber additions fell to its lowest level in two years in the first quarter of 2024, according to new research.
Technology company Samba TV’s latest viewership report published on Monday (August 19) revealed 99m US households streamed content in the first half of 2024.
The level of OTT hourly content viewed increased 40% over 2023 (compared to a 1% decline in hours viewed on linear television), however 44% only wanted to watch one or two platforms.
The report highlighted data from subscription research analysts Antenna showing 55.2m gross subscription gains in Q1 2024 and 50.4m cancellations, resulting in 4.8m net additions.
This compares to 8.1m net additions in Q1 2023 based on 46m gross subscription additions and 38m cancellations, marking a 3.3m or 41% year-on-year decline. Compared to 13.3m net additions in Q1 2022, the level has dropped by 64% in two years.
Net additions in Q4 2023 reached 8.3m factoring 57.3m gross subscription additions and 49m cancellations.
Despite individual platforms reporting quarterly subscriber gains, the report said platform users were adopting subscription cycling as a way of life and churned out of a membership after only viewing one show.
The exception was Netflix, which demonstrated the most “stickiness” in a sample of the 50 most watched originals in the first half of the year.
The top show among single-programme viewers in the first half of the year for Netflix was Fool Me Once. It was True Detective: Night Country for Max, Reacher for Prime Video, Masters Of The Air for Apple TV+, Percy Jackson And The Olympians on Disney+, leading Emmy nominee Shogun on Hulu, and Halo on Paramount+.
Inflation in the United States will also have been a key factor in household spending decisions this year, in addition to monthly price hikes by Max, Disney+, Hulu, Peacock and Paramount+ which have either happened or will happen before the end of the year, although the report does not mention this.
Of the leading platforms, Netflix enjoyed the highest proportion of viewers who watched more than two originals – 70% - and the lowest proportion of viewers watching only one original, 30%.
This compares to Apple TV+ (57% of members watched two or more and 43% watched only one) and Prime Video (56% vs. 44%).
The remaining major platforms all saw the proportion of subscribers who watched more than two originals eclipsed by those who watched only one: Max and Disney+ (both on 41% vs. 59%), Hulu (31% vs. 69%), and Paramount+ (29% vs.71%).
The report revealed that the film Ted on Peacock accounted for the highest proportion of subscribers on a platform in the first half of 2024 that had not watched the streamer’s originals in the second half of 2023, with 66%.
The desire to watch Halo accounted for 51% of Paramount+ members based on the above parameters, while Shogun accounted for 48% on Hulu.
Industry executives have been aware for some time that bundling prevents churn and the Antenna research shows that subscribers who sign up to the Disney bundle (offering Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+) and Apple One (Apple TV, Apple Music, Apple arcade and iCloud storage) are less likely to churn out than those who signed up for individual platforms.
The example was given of a 9% churn rate for Apple TV+ in March compared to 4% for Apple One.
It was also noted in the report that programming live events is another strategy the platforms are adopting to retain members.
Samba TV gathered its data from a research panel of three million smart TVs embedded with its proprietary Automatic Content Recognition technology across 24 of the top Smart TVs. The research does not estimate viewership on non-TV devices such as mobile phones.
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