Thanks to Black Friday, 30% of streaming signups happen during holidays
Thanks to Black Friday, 30% of streaming signups happen during holidays
Black Friday discounts can not only help streamers bring viewers in, but retain them as well.
As streaming services seek the best and most efficient methods of becoming profitable, they are all running into the same problem: there aren’t a lot of customers in the United States who want streaming subscriptions, but don’t have them. That increasingly means revenue has to come from retaining customers who are already subscribed, which means keeping them from unsubscribing over a long period of time. New data from Ampere Analysis is revealing the role that holiday discounts play in not only bringing customers to streamers but in keeping them subscribed over the long term.
Key Details:
- Happy holidays!: Thirty percent of streaming sign-ups between Feb. 2024 and Jan. 2025 happened between November and January.
- Green Friday: Eight of the top 10 U.S. streamers offered Black Friday deals in 2024, causing a spike in customer acquisitions.
- Saving and staying: High-value deals had a good influence on long-term engagement with a streamer.
Ampere’s study found that subscriber acquisition for streaming services heats up as the weather cools down. Nearly one-third of all streaming signups in the United States between February 2024 and January 2025 happened in the November-January period.
Its report found that the top 10 streaming services in the United States combined to add more than 500 million subscriptions between November 2024 and January 2025. November alone saw more than 200 million new streaming subscriptions across these services.
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It’s no surprise that November saw the most streaming signups of any month in the calendar; eight out of the top 10 streaming services on the market in the U.S. offered a Black Friday deal in 2024. Whether or not those streamers retained Black Friday subscribers over the next year or not, however, depended greatly on the specific deal they offered.
As readers might suspect, deals that offered higher-value savings for a longer term led to a better retention rate for the streamers that offered them. Black Friday subscribers to Hulu were retained by the streamer at a rate of almost 15% higher than customers who signed up at other parts of the year, which is hardly a surprise considering the streamer offered over $100 in savings during its Black Friday discount.
Click chart to expand.
“The festive period continues to stand out as a critical moment for US streamers, but while promotional activity plays an important role, analysis shows that winning - and keeping - festive consumers requires a broader, more considered strategy,” Ampere research manager Olivia Deane said. “Platforms that combine well-structured seasonal offers with strong content, and clear ongoing value are best placed to turn festive acquisition into long-term retention.”
Hulu
Hulu is a video streaming service that gives access to thousands of full seasons of exclusive series, hit movies, kids shows, and Hulu Originals like “Only Murders in the Building,” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.”