All of those streaming price hikes are starting to add up.
On average, streaming households now spend $61 per month for four subscriptions to different streaming services, a new survey by Deloitte has found. That monthly cost is up 27 percent from $48 a year earlier.
Enough is enough: 48 percent of consumers surveyed said they would cancel their favorite paid SVOD (subscription video on-demand) service if monthly prices went up by $5. Thirty-six percent said the available content on streamers is not worth the price. There are slight generational differences on the whole monthly cost thing; see the below visual aid. Gen Z is especially fed up.
(For the purposes of this study: Gen Z is those born between 1997-2009, Millennials are 1983-1996, Gen X are 1966-1982, Boomers are 1947-1965, and Matures are 1946 and prior.)
But are subscribers actually canceling services? Not as much as last year, Deloitte found. Forty percent of respondents said they’ve canceled a paid SVOD service in the past six months, down from 44 percent the prior year.
Bundling is helping the retention. Bundling here can refer to an in-house setup like the Disney Bundle, or to a newer trend like the discounted combination of Netflix and Max for certain Verizon customers. Both can reduce churn.
Tiering helps too. Forty-six percent of households subscribe to at least one ad-supported tier of a paid service as part of their portfolio. Fifty-seven percent use a free, ad-supported service.
Still, consumers want to see more bundling and customization. On the subject of customization — or a lack thereof — let’s look at the effectiveness of streaming ads. Just 18 percent of consumers under the age of 41 say ads on streaming services influence their purchasing decisions. Compare that with a 54 percent rate from social media. The same rate believes social media brings better content recommendations than SVOD algorithms.
Another thing that user-generated content does better than the major streamers is diversity. More than half of Black consumers prefer to watch TV shows and movies that feature Black performers, Deloitte’s 18th Digital Media Trends Survey found. Nearly 70 percent of Black consumers — and more than half of Asian, multiracial, and Hispanic and Latinx consumers — said it is important to them that TV shows and movies are written and produced by diverse creative teams.
“Streaming services have reached a pivotal moment. Delivering great content is no longer enough — curating a more personalized experience designed to better match content with personal preferences and interests is the next step,” Jana Arbanas, vice chair of Deloitte LLP, said in a statement. “And it’s important to recognize that social media is the primary way people discover and get excited about entertainment. For content to resonate and drive engagement with consumers, streaming video providers should work to ensure their content connects with their diverse audiences and fosters a sense of community and social connectivity.”
Deloitte surveyed a bit more than 3,500 U.S. consumers online in October 2023. Data is weighted to the most recent U.S. census.
