Streaming has become increasingly important for modern audiences, but streaming giant Netflix has failed to keep up with its competitors. While the platform had already been subjected to losses in revenue and subscribers in recent months, new data has revealed that a significant portion of UK customers has cancelled their subscription plans due to the rising cost of living.
According to the latest report published by The Guardian, almost 1 million households in the UK decided to cancel their Netflix subscriptions to combat the rising expenses in other spheres of daily life. The findings reveal that many UK families are currently struggling with other essentials such as rent, energy and food.
Dominic Sunnebo, the global insight director at Kantar Worldpanel, declared: “One million households have stopped streaming.” While Netflix recently announced the launch of a cheaper, ad-supported subscription tier, it doesn’t seem to have affected the leaving subscribers much.
Sunnebo explained: “The reason people are cancelling is the need to save money. The most recent quarter saw two of the most anticipated releases of the year, they ranked as the top two most enjoyed pieces of subscription video-on-demand content during the period, and yet we still saw a continuation of the negative trend of the market getting smaller.”
The global insight director added: “Generally speaking Netflix loyalty has held up relatively well in a pretty tough market, but it is starting to see churn levels rise. But the biggest problem Netflix is really struggling with is attracting new subscribers. Netflix needs to gain new customers, not just manage to stop them leaving.”
