Survey: Ability of Franchises to Fight Churn is Key as Streamers Reduce Content Budgets
Survey: Ability of Franchises to Fight Churn is Key as Streamers Reduce Content Budgets
There’s no denying the powerful draw of big-name franchises in the media landscape. Popular intellectual properties like “Game of Thrones,” “Lord of the Rings,” “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” and the Marvel and DC comics universes had a huge presence on the list of top TV shows in 2022, and that trend doesn’t appear to be going anywhere in 2023.
Companies like AMC, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have all declared their intentions to create more content from their most popular franchises in the coming year. A new survey from Hub Intel is showing the wisdom of that decision, especially as customers of streaming services increasingly need reasons to keep all of their subscriptions active.
Hub’s survey shows that practically every streaming service has done a fairly good job establishing brand recognition, with some obviously doing better than others. All of the top subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services on the market score well in this regard, as each is known to more than 90% of consumers. Where streamers falter, however, is differentiation. When survey participants were asked whether they were confident in explaining the difference between two streaming services to a third party, Netflix was the only platform that got a “yes” answer over 70% of the time.
This is a critical metric because if customers don’t know the difference between two services, it is far more difficult for companies to create brand loyalty. One of the most common reasons that people drop a streaming service is because they run out of things they want to watch, an issue that streamers could lessen by ensuring people know which titles are available on their platform and are similar to the content the user just finished.
Streamers used to try to prevent users from leaving by simply turning on the content fire hose. But after years of sometimes-reckless spending in the name of boosting subscriber numbers, market forces are dictating that streamers have to show more than just millions of users to be rewarded with a higher stock price. That has led to an industry-wide slowdown in the growth of content budgets, with an increased focus on franchises as streamers look to reduce their costs but still keep users engaged.
Hub’s data shows how valuable a well-known IP can be in this regard. For example: in January 2023, 29% of respondents said they had watched “Yellowstone”. Of those, 70% said they had gone on to watch one or more of the shows related to “Yellowstone” (direct spin-offs or shows promoted as coming from Taylor Sheridan/the creators of “Yellowstone”). That number is good by any standard, but it’s especially impressive when considering the effort implied: “Yellowstone” can only be watched on cable or Peacock, while all those other shows require a subscription to Paramount+.
Related: Part 1 of ‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 to Arrive on Streaming This Month
This report builds on another Hub survey from March which indicated that of all the major franchises in the marketplace, Marvel is the biggest draw. Forty percent of all streaming users said they’d be likely to watch another Marvel title in the future, which shows that Disney has at least a decent grasp on maintaining customer loyalty. That’s a big reason why Disney+ shows a consistently better-than-average churn rate.
As the streaming industry collectively tries to reign in risk, customers will see more shows and movies developed off their biggest IPs. Users may roll their eyes at a perceived lack of originality, but for content providers, franchises are a key weapon in the fight against customer churn.
Disney+
Disney+ is a video streaming service with over 13,000 series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, The Muppets, and more. It is available in 61 countries and 21 languages. It is notable for its popular original series like “The Mandalorian,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” and “Andor.”