According to Ofcom, an industry watchdog, almost 600,000 British households have cancelled Amazon Prime subscriptions due to a combination of inflation forcing them to tighten their belts, and a forthcoming price hike by the company.
In Q2 2022, 590,000 customers ditched the streaming giant, a 5% drop in memberships. Amazon had announced it would be increasing the cost of a subscription by £1 a month to £8.99 in July.
Netflix meanwhile lost 1% of its subscribers, as 210,000 customers ditched their subscriptions, bringing the streamer’s total subscriber count down to 17.1 million in Q2.
Disney experienced a massive growth in subscribers in the UK, adding 1.8 million, bringing the streamers total subscriber count up to 6.6 million, an increase of 38%, making it the world’s largest streaming service, although the rate of growth was less than in previous months.
Ofcom Media Nations report also noted that overall, the number of households with at least one streaming subscription dropped by 350,000 to 19.2 million. The report did predict however that some of those households would resubscribe if economic conditions improved, saying, “Cancellations do not necessarily represent customers that have been lost for good. Ofcom’s survey of subscribers who cancelled earlier this year found that almost three quarters of customers said they thought they would resubscribe – reflecting the flexibility that allows customers to pick up and drop subscriptions depending on changes in programmes, needs or circumstances.”
The report indicates streaming services are not the household necessities analysts have claimed they were. As competition increases, and free-to-view options increase, companies like Sky, which previously had little competition and seemed relatively recession-proof, now show signs of difficulty as the competition allows inflation-wracked customers to downgrade to cheaper services or even use free services. Earlier this year Sky reported it had lost 255,000 customers, bringing total subscribership down to 2.7 million in the three months to June. Ofcom’s report said the number of subscribers to Sky’s streaming service NOW had dropped 220,000 subscribers, leaving it with only 2.1 million subscribers in Q2.
Globally Disney was boosted by the Star Wars series Obi Wan Kenobi and the Predator reboot Prey. It added 14.4 million customers to Disney+ in Q2, leaving it with 221 million subscribers globally. That puts it just above Netflix, with 220.7 million viewers globally.
The competitive pressures in the market have forced Disney, Netflix, and Amazon Prime to offer advertising-funded subscription models which make streaming cheaper, or even free for viewers.
Meanwhile the shift toward streaming means that among younger viewer, the viewers of broadcast TV have dropped by two-thirds over the last ten years.
