Despite the fact that the majority of last year was spent with onlookers and analysts predicting doom and gloom for the streaming industry, a new study from ironSource/Tapjoy about why consumers download and/or cancel streaming service apps from their mobile phones suggests that Americans are still quite happy with their streaming services, and many are still more than willing to download even more of them.
According to the survey of 6,047 United States consumers, 68% of people ranked a streaming service’s app among the top 10 apps on their phone, with 60% naming two or more different streaming apps. Not only do these results suggest general satisfaction with the apps and how they work, but also daily use. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said that, in a scenario where they woke up to find every single app on their phone deleted, their favorite streaming app would be one of the first five apps they redownloaded.
But with people already signed up more streaming services than they ever had before, surely people aren’t chomping at the bit to add even more subscriptions, are they? Surprisingly, only 7% of users said that they were unwilling to download any additional streaming services, with the other 93% saying they’d consider adding more.
What causes people to drop an app when they do? Usually, the reason is financial. According to the data, 40% of people who’ve canceled a subscription to a streaming service say that it was because of the cost, with 49% of those asked saying that they’d be more willing to download an app if it was free or discounted. These findings include ad-supported streamers, which 54% of those questioned admitted to having on their phones.
Finally, there are some interesting demographic factors that play into people’s willingness to change what apps they use. For instance, while women are more likely than men to download a new streaming app based entirely on one title that they want to watch, women are also more likely than men to cancel a subscription because of the cost. Additionally, Gen X finds themselves as the age group most willing to pay to avoid ads, with 60% of them doing so. But they’re also the most likely to cancel a subscription, with a massive 84% of them having done so in the past year.
So while factors like cost and the number of advertisements play into people’s decisions as to what streaming services they use, it seems that the vast majority of people are fairly open-minded to the idea of continuing to expand their catalog of streaming options.