Warner Bros. Discovery UK Boss Says Streaming Has Moved On From “Subscriber Growth At Any Cost” But “Churn” Remains A Problem

deadline.com:

Warner Bros. Discovery‘s (WBD) boss in the UK has said the streaming industry has moved “smartly” away from a “subscriber growth almost at any cost” approach. “Scale is important but profitable growth with responsible spending is much more important,” Andrew Georgiou, who was promoted last year, told the Deloitte and Enders Media & Telecoms 2024 and Beyond Conference in London.

He talked up WBD and others’ commitment to bundling as a way to battle against the issue of subscriber churn, which is having big knock-on impacts on the business. “Netflix is a mainstay but we are starting to see real SVoD churn, people cycling in and out at an increasing rate,” he added. “That phenomenon is a huge cost to business and reducing that churn, increasing engagement and reducing the cost of ‘winbacks’ is something we all need to focus on.” He was speaking on a panel after Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters talked up the streamer’s breadth of content in the UK. “The bundling opportunity provides better lifetime value,” Georgiou went on to say. “It used to be subscriber growth at any cost but we’ve moved smartly away from that phenomenon.

Scale is important but profitable growth with responsible spending is much more important.” Around the world there are “deeper, more collaborative experiments” in bundling taking place, Georgiou added, pointing to WBD U.S.

sports bundles as an example. He cited major differences between the U.S. and UK that U.S. businesses need to remain cognisant of, saying that 58% of TV is watched on free services in the latter compared to less than 25% in the former.