Which Streamer Inspires the Most Devotion? A New Study Says It’s Not Netflix
Step aside, Netflix — there’s a new churn leader in town.
Amazon Prime Video boasts the lowest rate of customer cancellations in the streaming industry, according to a new study by Parks Associates. Prime Video’s current annual churn rate is 8 percent, which means eight out of 100 Prime Video members cancel their service within a 12-month period. (A customer who returns within the same time frame would be counted as both churn and current subscriber.)
By comparison, it sounds like “90-Day Fiancé” is not creating many 365-day subscribers: The Discovery+ annual churn rate is a whopping 43 percent.
There’s a pretty big gap between the churn rates of league-leaders Prime Video and Netflix and the other major streaming platforms. From April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024, Hulu’s churn rate was 15 percent, Max’s (fka HBO Max) was 17 percent, as was Peacock’s; the Disney+ churn rate was 21 percent and Paramount+ was 24 percent.
Apple TV+ barely beat out Discovery+ with a churn rate of 40 percent. A whole lot of “Ted Lasso” fans probably signed up for Apple TV+ around its March 15, 2023 Season 3 premiere, and likely churned out shortly after its May 31, 2023 finale.
There are clear reasons why Prime Video is at the top and Discovery+ is at the bottom (of the major streamers, at least).
While we don’t know the number of Prime Video subscribers, we do know that the vast majority of Prime Video subscribers receive access as part of an Amazon Prime membership, which is mostly about its fast, free shipping. Amazon also does not report how many Prime subscribers it has, but we know the number is in the hundreds of millions.
On the other hand, there is good reason to churn out of a Discovery+ membership — especially in spring 2023, which is when HBO Max was both rebranded and expanded. Max includes almost all Discovery+ programming, anyway — why not pay more and get the HBO stuff, Max originals, and Warner Bros. films as well? It’s the best of all worlds: prestige TV, major studio films, and whatever the hell you call “Dr. Pimple Popper.”
Traditional wisdom holds that Netflix, the undisputed streaming leader, has the best churn rate in the business at about 2 percent — but that is per month. On an annual basis, Netflix churn is 9 percent, according to Parks Associates. It is probable that Amazon Prime Video’s slightly better annual loyalty rate boils down to many Prime members choosing a yearly plan. Netflix does not offer an annual plan.
Still, Netflix “continues to creep closer” to Prime Video’s annual churn rate, Eric Sorensen, the director of Parks Associates’ Streaming Video Tracker, said in a press release. Netflix’s “more tiers of services” have helped, Sorensen added, as has its “syndicated content,” like former USA Network series “Suits.”
The quarterly Parks Associates consumer survey of 8,000 internet households tracks churn data for 89 total services, 85 of which are SVOD (or SVOD/AVOD hybrids) services. In all, 47 percent of streaming households canceled at least one service within the 12-month period.
