Consumers Are Canceling Video Streaming Services at Significant Rates

You hear a lot about cord cutting and people dropping their cable service, but not so much about people dropping their OTT (over-the-top) video streaming services. Park Associates has now quantified the OTT churn and it’s bigger than you probably think: 18% annually.

That’s right. 18% of streaming video service customers are dropping their service each year. Park Associates research shows that number has been fairly consistent over the past three years.

While Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu have the most stability, churn rates for other services are volatile. The average subscription length appears to about 30 months.

“With OTT service penetration starting to plateau at around 65% adoption among U.S. broadband households, the OTT video market is reaching a level of saturation for the services currently available to consumers,” Hunter Sappington, Research Analyst, said.

“In an increasingly crowded and competitive marketplace where subscriber acquisition costs are high, this plateau highlights the need for services to focus on retention rather than solely acquisition.