Britain’s streaming subscriptions drop as households cut costs

According to a new study by Kantar, the number of households that subscribe to at least one streaming service in the UK dropped in the first quarter of 2022. 1.51 million subscriptions to streaming video on demand (SVOD) services were cancelled in the period, up from 1.04 million the previous quarter and 1.2 million a year ago. More than half a million cancellations were attributed to cost savings.

The cost-of-living crisis hit younger households particularly hard in the UK, where inflation reached 6% in the first quarter. The streaming service penetration rate for GenZ households fell for the first time in Q3 2020, from 75.4% in Q1 2020 to 74.6% in Q3 2021.

Compared with Q1 2021, when the pandemic kept more people home, only 3% of UK households signed up for video streaming in Q1 2022. In total, 58 per cent of households (16.9 million) have at least one paid subscription, a decrease of 215,000 quarter-over-quarter. The average number of streaming services subscribed to by UK homes is 2.4.

In other findings, Kantar said that Disney+ quarterly churn tripled quarter on quarter to 12%, while Amazon Prime Video’s Reacher was the “most enjoyed” SVOD title in the quarter, followed by Netflix’s Ozark and Inventing Anna.

According to Kantar, Netflix and Amazon are considered ‘hygiene’ subscriptions for Brits, i.e. the last to give up when households are forced to prioritise spending. Disney, NOW, Discovery+ and BritBox all saw significant increases in churn rate quarter over quarter, according to a report that says SVOD service cancellations are on the rise, with “wanting to save money” being cited as the reason for 38% of planned cancellations in Q2.

Similarly, Kantar notes that consumers continue to be drawn to SVOD services by specific shows/films – in just 12 months, the number of consumers saying they signed up with a service to watch a particular show or film has risen from 30% to 36%. AppleTV+ secured its highest ever new subscriber share in the UK, up to 9.2%.

Kantar states in the report, “With many streaming services having witnessed significant revenue growth during the height of Covid, this moment will be sobering. The evidence from these findings suggests that British households are now proactively looking for ways to save, and the SVOD market is already seeing the effects of this.”