You sit down, turn on the TV and spend the first 20 minutes deciding what to watch – usually across multiple streaming services. In the ensuing period you wonder whether you could have picked a better show and, if you decide this is the case, it’s back to the drawing board.
It’s a familiar dilemma but now it has a name: ‘subscription overload’.
And, according to new YouGov research, that feeling of being overwhelmed by too many streaming services and too much choice is one of the main reasons why people might decide to cancel their Netflix, Disney+ or Amazon Prime Video accounts.
Other factors leading to customer churn include low usage of subscriptions and cost concerns. Nearly 40 per cent of cash-strapped Brits who plan to cancel in the next 12 months say it is because they are trying to save.
On demand video services are facing a downward spiral from their golden days during the Covid-19 pandemic when everyone was confined to living room sofas.
Some 29 per cent of UK consumers cancelled or removed at least one streaming service over the past year and this is apparently set to worsen. YouGov also found that 38 per cent are likely to cancel at least one subscription in the next 12 months.
“While it’s important to note that not everyone who expresses an intention to cancel will do so, the proportion of people who plan to cancel in the future sits at a concerning 9 points above the figure of cancellations in the past year,” the polling site said.
Fresher entrants to the market like Dazn are more vulnerable to cancellation, with half of the sports streaming platform’s users saying they could ditch it. Some 45 per cent of Apple TV+ subscribers said they are likely to scrap the service.
Fewer than a third of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video subscribers are likely to cancel though. In January, Netflix reported 13.1m new subscribers for its fourth quarter, beating the consensus estimate of 8.9m, and up from 7.7m from the same period in 2022.
In February, Disney+ said it lost 1.3m subscribers in the three months to 31 December, following a price hike in October.