Many more people are jumping from one streaming subscription to another, a behavior that could have big implications for the entertainment industry.

Americans are getting increasingly impulsive about hitting the cancellation button on their streaming services. More than 29 million — about a quarter of domestic paying streaming subscribers — have canceled three or more services over the last two years, according to Antenna, a subscription research firm. And the numbers are rising fast.

The data suggests a sharp shift in consumer behavior — far from the cable era, when viewers largely stuck with a single provider, as well as the early days of the so-called streaming wars, when people kept adding services without culling or jumping around.

Among these nomadic subscribers, some are taking advantage of how easy it is, with a monthly contract and simple click of a button, to hopscotch from one service to the next. Indeed, these users can be fickle — a third of them resubscribe to the canceled service within six months, according to Antenna’s research.

“In three years, this went from a very niche behavior to an absolute mainstream part of the market,” said Jonathan Carson, the chief executive of Antenna.

Non-paywall link

  • Aviandelight
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    8 months ago

    I really don’t understand why streaming business are so surprised. They are providing television for rent and users are renting it plain and simple.They seem to think they are entitled to lengthy subscriptions from users when in reality they aren’t providing a service that’s even stable or worth it.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      8 months ago

      The Netflix model was only ever really sustainable as long as there was only one or two providers. As long as there was only Netflix people were quite happy to just stay with the subscription because all of the content was on one convenient platform.

      If I want to watch popular shows and how I have to subscribe to five or six services. Why would I do that if they are all still going to be there in a couple of months.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        The Netflix model was only ever really sustainable as long as there was only one or two providers

        The netflix model of streaming for cash was sustainable. The practice of gouging to where people will churn, that’s more widespread and an expected result.

        • Pofski@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          The moment that I wasn’t allowed to do with my 6 accounts what I want to do, it was done for me.

      • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        if they are all still going to be there in a couple of months.

        That’s the beauty of Netflix. They won’t.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          8 months ago

          They usually keep new shows at least for a year. And I suppose after that there’s no possible way of watching that content ever again, it’s lost into oblivion and certainly not available to download from a large number of locations.

          Oh well

    • dumples@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      Exactly. I want to watch 1 show and when I’m done I’m cancelling. I’m looking at your paramount plus.

        • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Paramount+ ate the children’s entertainment app Noggin, which was primarily a streaming media and games app for the Nickelodeon crowd. It was commercial free, highly curated, and generally an exciting thing for the kids to open up and use to discover stuff like STEM games that were actually fun. Enshittification merged Noggin into Paramount, removed the recommendation algorithm geared towards kids, and shut down the Noggin app. Now Paramount is the only option and it’s horrible.

        • dumples@kbin.social
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          8 months ago

          My wife wanted to watch the Grammys and when we saw it was on Paramount Plus we got it for 1 day. Afterwards I bought a 25 dollar over the air antennae so we can watch live CBS on the local affiliate for the once per year when we want to watch live TV. Isn’t worth it pretty much ever

        • ares35@kbin.social
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          8 months ago

          they thought star trek would carry it… when that didn’t work, they shopped some of those titles around to play elsewhere and don’t even have their entire flagship franchise available anymore.

        • nytrixus@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Agreed. I have that shit for free because of where I work and have yet to watch a single thing on it. I mean there’s things I would’ve watched ideally, but my tastes have changed where I don’t want to revisit some things. Ah yes, they have the fucking Golf Masters on there. Paramount Plus’ selection looks like the home of all of those mundane shows you’d commonly find on cable TV. The ones you skip a lot of the time. They’re all here in one package that almost nobody wants unless they want to tap into nostalgia for some of the other ones, like the Nick shows.

          And no Anime at all either.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        8 months ago

        What you mean the Star Trek streaming service with some extra stuff no on cares about?

        • dumples@kbin.social
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          8 months ago

          Originally we went to get to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race but it doesn’t have the current season even though its the main attraction. Then when I saw that some Star Trek wasn’t on it we canceled within a week.

          • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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            8 months ago

            Are you outside the US? I thought Netflix got all the Trek series everywhere outside of the US, but this was back when Discovery was first coming out so my info may be out of date. I just download the stuff to avoid jumping through these hoops and avoid ads.

        • RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          It’s the Yellowstone Cinematic Universe Channel. And it’s only a matter of time before they force the Star Trek shows to bridge the gap.

    • Seraph@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      Users: Fine if you want me to pay a monthly fee I’ll only pay 3 months of the year.
      Streaming services: Shook

    • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      You’re probably being theoretical rhetorical, but they’re definitely not surprised. Any actual confusion as to why an article like this can be cleared up when you consider the author isn’t really talking to us. Try reading it as if it’s a business brief, talking about us as a ‘problem’ that must be addressed. That ‘problem’ is we users are getting more value from the current model than was calculated by corporate.

      Soon there will be another article (also addressing the room as if we’re not part of the discussion) detailing how corporate managed to “fix” it, and the revenue increases it brings. The other companies will follow suit to thunderous applause

    • Omega@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I would be happy to keep subscribing for a reasonable price. But I’m starting to trim the fat as they continue to price gouge.

    • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      TV was already content for rent essentially but with streaming we had more consolidation under 1-3 services initially. Now it’s balkanized again and you have to basically do the work of cobbling together your own faux-cable package like the old days, keeping track of each individual one with its own credentials and costs and constantly shuffling content, all for like $50-$100/mo now.

      Literally the only advantage over old school broadcast packages is now everyone functionally has a TEVO/DVR. But it’s all across a bunch of different apps with different UI’s and such. I mean why would we possibly be ok with that? Watching a show is so much work now comparatively.