Brits are abandoning streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ to save money, amid the biggest drop in income recorded in the UK since the 1950s.
Streaming services grew during the pandemic because of forced isolation at home. With lockdown restrictions lifted, Britons canceled around 1.5 million subscriptions in the first three months of 2022, an increase of around 500,000 from the previous quarter.
More than a third did so to save money, according to a new report by media consultancy Kantar.
Rising inflation in the UK – which hit a 30-year high of 7% last month – has forced many households to cut non-essential spending, and subscriptions to video streaming platforms are firmly in the firing line.
“Families are beginning to seriously prioritize where and how their disposable income is spent,” the report said.
The Kantar report showed the number of British households with at least one subscription fell by 215,000 during the quarter, with a record 38% of customers also planning to cancel subscriptions in the next three months due to cash concerns.
“The proportion of consumers planning to cancel on-demand subscription services and stating the main reason as ‘wanting to save money’ rose to its highest level at 38%, up from 29% in the fourth quarter of 21,” the report said.
Rising energy and food prices are expected to reduce household disposable income by 2.2% per person over the next 12 months, according to the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility. That’s the biggest drop in living standards since 1956, when government records began.
Dominic Sunnebo, director of global insights at Kantar’s Worldpanel division, said the latest figures are “sober” for streaming.
“Evidence from these findings suggests that British households are now looking for ways to proactively save, and the market is seeing the effects of this,” he said.
Viewers drifted away from Disney at a much faster rate than Netflix and Amazon, as customer churn tripled quarterly to 12%.
Kantar estimates that Netflix – the world’s largest streaming platform – has around 12 million subscribers in Britain, representing between 5% and 6% of its global customer base.
Source: CNN Brasil
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