Millennials Reaching Streaming Limit

The subscription streaming VOD service market exploded after Millennials (25-40 years old) increasingly turned a cold shoulder to legacy bundled pay-TV programming in search of less-expensive over-the-top video alternatives.

Now, that SVOD subscription growth has slowed, and more consumers, i.e., Millennials, are opting for cheaper ad-supported subscription tiers and free ad-supported streaming television options, according to Media Playing News. While consuming TV shows or movies at home remains dominant for the Gen X and Baby Boomers (41-75 years), across all generations there are mounting frustrations with SVOD. Nearly half of consumers say they pay too much for the SVOD services they use and about a third intend to reduce the number they subscribe to, according to new data from Deloitte.

That mindset continues to drive churn (when a subscriber cancels their subscription). Overall subscriber churn for paid SVOD services over a six-month period is 44% according to the consulting firm. For Gen Z and Millennial consumers, those numbers jump to 57% and 62%, respectively. Similarly, around a quarter of consumers have “churned and returned,” canceling a paid SVOD subscription only to renew that same subscription within a six-month period. Again, these figures jump by double digits for Gen Z and Millennials, who often subscribe to watch specific shows and movies and then cancel when they’re done — only to resubscribe to watch a new season or film.

While data exists underscoring consumer frustration with chasing content across multiple subscriptions and/or losing access to content due to expiring license rights, the cost of sustaining myriad SVOD services is wearing thin as well.

The report found that about half of consumers (47%) say they have made a change to their entertainment subscriptions because of current economic conditions, including canceling a service to save money, switching to a free ad-supported options such as The Roku Channel, Pluto TV and Tubi, or bundling services such as the Disney offering cheaper access to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ collectively, and Paramount+ and Max combining Showtime Anytime and Discovery+, respectively.