Americans’ appetite for streaming may have reached a tipping point as growth stalls and a new fight to capture consumers’ screen time emerges, Kantar said in its Q3 Entertainment on Demand Barometer report.
During the previous quarter, 4.5 million consumers canceled their streaming subscriptions, effectively driving down streaming penetration to 85%. However, according to the report, this decline is mainly attributed to subscription video-on-demand services and single platform subscribers.
While SVOD services still account for 82% of all streaming, their penetration has declined by 1.5 percentage points since the second quarter. Moreover, among all consumers who canceled their subscriptions, 3.8 million are reported to have had only one subscription in the second quarter of 2021.
Diving deeper, the report found that of those who had only one subscription, 69% were subscribed to Amazon Prime Video. Despite accounting for the largest share of new streaming subscriptions in Q2, Amazon Prime Video had fallen two percentage points by Q3 2021.
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The remaining cancellations can be attributed to Hulu and Netflix.
Nonetheless, streaming still remains widely popular as more streamers are stacking their subscriptions with newer services like Apple TV+, HBO Max, Peacock, Discover+ and Paramount+. The average TV streamer’s viewing time is divided by 4.2 subscriptions.
Apple TV+ saw greater customer satisfaction and retention thanks to the highly watched show “Ted Lasso,” resulting in an NPS increase of 18 points. The report anticipates this will help Apple retain subscribers and viewer engagement through the fourth quarter.
AVOD and FAST services are reported to have the greatest gains. According to Kantar, HBO Max share has grown by 24%, now accounting for 15% of all subscribers; Peacock share grew by 30%, accounting for 11% of subscribers; and Discovery+ share grew by 68%, accounting for 6% of all subscribers.
“This high stacking and growth of share among maturing platforms in Q3 2021 indicate that below the surface the market can shift quickly,” Kantar said in its report. “Although we don’t anticipate huge losses for the overall VOD market in Q4 2021, the share of subscriptions may continue to change. Platforms who keep their viewers engaged with leading content will determine who wins in this high stacking market ongoing.”