Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Subscriptions Fell By 350,000 Last Quarter In UK After Record Year For High-End TV Production – Ofcom Report
deadline.comMore than 350,000 households ditched subscriptions to the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ last quarter, according to regulator Ofcom’s annual Media Nations UK report, which showed a record year for British high-end TV production.While still high at 19.2M, the proportion of UK households subscribing to an SVoD fell by 1pp to 67% across the quarter, coming as the deep-pocketed U.S.
streamers struggle in their traditionally strong markets and rethink tactics.Take-up of these services had been beginning to slow down in 2021 but the decline sped up last quarter, with around 4% cancelling Prime Video and Disney+ subscriptions and 2% cutting off Netflix.The news comes off the back of a cost-of-living crisis in the UK, which only looks set to get worse and was flagged by Ofcom as “putting pressure on consumer spend.”However, the number of households now accessing all three rose to one-fifth of the entire population, which costs a house £300 ($362) per year.Netflix remains the most popular SVoD, with 60% of households subscribed, ahead of Prime Video (46%) and Disney+ (23%), the latter of which saw impressive early growth stall last quarter.
Newer competitors such as Discovery+ (8%) and Apple TV+ (6%) lag far behind, while Q2 saw the launch of Paramount+ as competition ramps up.Around three-quarters of people surveyed said they would consider resubscribing, “reflecting the flexibility of the SVoD consumer proposition,” added Ofcom, with customers “picking up and dropping subs depending on [specific shows] or change in needs or circumstances.”While the annual 108-page report brought bad news for the UK’s public broadcasters – with average viewing falling by 9% and a generational divide shown up as over-65s were
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