Over 50% of HBO Max Churn Is ‘Involuntary’; Max Will Alert Customers to Missed Payments, Accept PayPal
Every streaming service is trying to combat churn nowadays. Users are more willing than ever to sign up for a service only long enough to watch a specific title, and then cancel before their next billing cycle, and it’s now up to streamers to figure out how to keep users engaged when they’re done watching what they came to the service for.
But what about users who don’t choose to churn, but find their service canceled because of an issue with their credit or debit card? These customers can make up a significant portion of customer losses for a streaming service. Warner Bros. Discovery global streaming head J.B. Perrette estimated that up to half of customers who churn away from HBO Max do so involuntarily and that the company will do more to help those users when it launches its new streaming platform Max on May 23.
“Our expanded content offering and the engagement improvements I just outlined will be the most impactful way to improve voluntary churn,” Perrette said at WBD’s press event unveiling details about Max. “But the other half of our churn in the U.S. is involuntary, meaning people aren’t choosing to cancel. It’s that their card is expired, there are insufficient funds on that day, or some other billing complication.”
Perrette said that the company would introduce new features to Max that would help combat these issues, helping to fix a current limitation HBO Max has in alerting users to missed payments. These include failed payment notifications that will be sent to emails and mobile phones, as well as in-app messages on smart TVs, where he says the service sees its vast majority of usage. Max will also begin accepting PayPal as a payment method, expanding the number of ways customers can keep their service going if there’s an issue with their credit card.
Users who are concerned about seeing a jump in their streaming cost once Max rolls out next month can breathe a sigh of relief. During the same press conference, WBD executives confirmed that the service will maintain its current price structure for the foreseeable future, despite the fact that the service will bring most of the content from discovery+ together with the HBO Max library; $9.99 for ad-supported streaming, or $15.99 to watch without ads and be able to download up to 30 titles to watch offline. The launch of Max will see a new Ultimate tier with extra features become available for $19.99 per month.
It’s more critical than ever for streamers to combat churn, as companies attempt to determine how they can make their streaming platforms profitable. Slashing the number of customers who churn involuntarily is key, and WBD is clearly invested in ensuring it puts a halt to as many of these cancelations as possible.
Max
Max is a subscription video streaming service that gives access to the full HBO library, along with exclusive Max Originals. There are hubs for content from TLC, HGTV, Food Network, Discovery, TCM, Cartoon Network, Travel Channel, ID, and more. Watch hit series like “The Last of Us,” “House of the Dragon,” “Succession,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and more. Thanks to the B/R Sports add-on, users can watch NBA, MLB, NHL, March Madness, and NASCAR events.