Streaming service cancellations rose by 49% year-over-year in 2022: Report

The Yahoo Finance Live team discusses the role higher prices may be playing in the increase in streaming service cancellations.

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SEANA SMITH: All right, well, there's plenty of buzz in the streaming industry as Warner Brothers unveils its new Max service, but new data showing that people are actually getting sick of subscriptions. According to Antenna-- that's a subscriber-measurement firm-- streaming-service cancellations jumped 49% in 2022 compared to the previous year.

This move might not be too big of a surprise. A recent survey here from Credit Karma finding that about a third of respondents saying that their biggest financial mistake was paying for services that they simply never used.

David, you come to-- there's so many services out there, so many subscriptions out there. I think we're all maybe, it's fair to say, signed up for too many. I need to become a little bit better at cutting some of these subscriptions because I'm not among the 49% in that group.

DAVE BRIGGS: You have not. Well, you have young kids. You feel like you need them.

SEANA SMITH: I don't. I'm actually adding subscriptions. Yeah.

DAVE BRIGGS: Right? I recently did some accounting of our subscription services, and yeah, I think we cancelled three of five, roughly.

The number that really jumped out to me in this new data was people thought they were spending $86 a month on subscriptions. They were spending $219, $133 more than they thought on their own bills.

So I think that's what really is surprising people right now. You just get used to them. They're on autopay on your credit card, so you don't zero in until you sit back, take a full accounting, and budget, and then your eyes just pop out of your head. A lot of families are doing that. A lot of young people are now getting their binge-worthy content, cancelling that subscription, hopping over to the next one to catch the next series. And that's why I think you're seeing so many streamers go to the one episode per week model--

SEANA SMITH: It makes sense.

DAVE BRIGGS: --to hang on to those subscribers a little longer.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, they're doing everything they can to reduce that churn and especially in this landscape now where there's more and more competition. Obviously Warner Brothers with their announcement today adding to that. We'll see. We know we've had a number of analysts come on the program say there's only going to be three or four winners within this space, and it's clear who the leaders are today.

DAVE BRIGGS: Right, and we're just hearing more and more come into the fold. And you just can't help but wonder if times get tight, if that mild recession that the Fed is possible happens, people are really going to start to take a look at their subscriptions.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, they certainly are when they're looking here to cut back on their budget.