Customers Spend Nearly $400 per Year on Subscriptions They Don’t Use; Netflix Leads as Most Unused Service
New data from Self Financial finds that more than 85% of paid subscriptions go unused in a given month.
It can be hard to keep track of all the subscription services you’re signed up to. Consumers have more entertainment options to subscribe to than ever before, and a new survey commissioned by Self Financial shows that the power of choice comes with a downside. A huge amount of paid subscriptions go unused each month, it found, and streaming services are among the top platforms that customers are paying for but not watching regularly.
Key Details:
- The survey found that 85.7% of paid subscriptions go unused every month.
- Amazon Prime is the service that goes unused most often.
- Netflix and Disney+ are the two most-unused streaming-only platforms.
The survey done on behalf of Self Financial took a look at all subscription services consumers were most likely to be using, not just video-on-demand services. It found that the average household has 4.1 active paid subscriptions, and spends $40.39 per month on those subscriptions. “Unused” paid subscriptions were defined as those that were being paid for but had not been used in the last 30 days to tie into the popularity of 30-day trials on some services.
That’s reasonable enough, except most viewers aren’t using their subscriptions most of the time. The survey showed that 85.7% of monthly paid subscriptions are going unused, which translates to $32.84 per month. When added up over the course of the year, that unused subscription cost reaches more than $394.
So why don’t customers just cancel these subscriptions? Most simply don’t remember, as 33.5% of Self’s respondents said they forget to discontinue a subscription they don’t use thanks to automatic renewals. Additionally, 35.3% said that the services that they subscribe to make it too difficult to cancel.
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Which Streaming Subscriptions Go Unused the Most?
The report generated by Self Financial also zooms in on streaming subscriptions, which are popular among consumers. It found that 51.8% of respondents liked their subscriptions overall, and the quality of streaming services was the main reason for this.
It also looked into which streamers see the highest percentage of customers not watching them despite the fact that they continue to pay for them. Netflix continued its dominance over other streaming platforms in this regard; 28.2% of Netflix customers report paying for a subscription, but not using it. Disney+ was the second-most unused service, followed by Prime Video.
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Prime Video’s placement on the list isn’t surprising, as Amazon Prime was the most-given answer overall for the service that customers don’t use on a regular basis. Prime Video is, of course, one of the main benefits of a Prime subscription outside of free shipping, so it stands to reason that anyone not using their Prime account often likely isn’t watching much Prime Video.
Password-sharing is having its effects on the habits of consumers who use someone else’s subscription. Self found that 82.6% of users share a subscription with someone else, and 46% of sharers say they can’t afford a subscription of their own to that given service.
Zooming in on streaming, 72.1% of Netflix, Disney+ and Max customers say that password-sharing restrictions will cause them to change their accounts. This could have big implications for Disney+ and Max; Disney plans to begin enforcing rules against sharing of streaming accounts widely in September, and WBD is also expected to implement restrictions on password-sharing in the near future.
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In light of the data from Self, readers might want to check their bank balances and see if they have some subscriptions they don’t use too often. Canceling might free up money in your budget for a new streaming service!
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.