Streaming services are the go-to for many when it comes to binge-watching their favourite shows, but as the cost of living continues to rise, one in three Canadians have cancelled at least one subscription in the past six months, a new study has found.
The Angus Reid Institute study of 1,618 individuals found that 53% of respondents had cancelled their subscription in order to save some extra money.
The likelihood of reducing the amount of streaming services one pays for was also shown to be higher among younger Canadians and those living in lower-income homes.
One in five people cancelled subscriptions to one or more platforms because they felt they had too many, in addition to those who ceased services to reduce costs, according to a report released on Thursday.
The cancellations occur just after some streaming services announce plans to raise their pricing and add adverts to their platforms.
Earlier this month, Netflix revealed it would introduce a new $5.99/monthly ad-supported streaming tier in Canada at the start of November.
This means that members who pay less in the $9. 99 to $20. 99 range for ad-free plans will also have to endure four to five adverts every hour.
There are currently 223 million Netflix subscribers worldwide.
Several of Netflix’s rivals in the United States have previously introduced ad-supported packages that exchange sporadic commercial breaks for a lower monthly price.
The options include HBO Max, Peacock, and Paramount Plus in the United States, while Disney Plus has announced plans to launch its own version in the near future.
Despite the flood of cancellations, the study found that more than four in five Canadians have at least one subscription to a streaming service, and the majority have multiple subscriptions, with two in five having three or more.
When it comes to cancelling subscriptions, a sizable portion of Canadians appear to have been influenced by the content on streaming services.
A total of 24% cancelled the service because they said there was nothing to watch; 15% did so because a show they had been watching had been taken off the list; and 39% did so because they weren’t using the service.
Because they thought the programming was the same across all platforms, almost one in ten people cancelled their streaming subscriptions.
In addition to streaming services, the study also discovered a persistent fall in cable usage.
As new services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, and Crave entered the market in 2010, pay television experienced a decline in subscribers for the first time ever.
And that fad is still going strong. While three out of five Canadian families today report having a cable or satellite subscription, nearly nine out of ten did so a decade ago.
One-third of those who cancelled claimed that streaming services already offered the movies and TV shows they watch online, while one-quarter claimed that there was nothing on TV they wanted to watch. Additionally, half claimed they weren’t getting excellent value.
But more than two out of every five people said they will keep their cable subscriptions since the shows they enjoy are only accessible with a traditional television subscription.
An online poll was run by the Angus Reid Institute between Oct.
11–13, 2022 among 1,618 Canadian people who are Angus Reid Forum members who make up a representative randomised sample. A probability sample of this size would typically have a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20 (for comparison only). Rounding is to blame for any differences in the totals or between them. ARI funded the survey itself and used materials from Reuters and The Canadian Press.
More As living expenses rise, Canadians are cancelling their streaming subscriptions, according to a research.
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