Operators of U.S. premium SVOD services received some welcome news from the latest report from Antenna: After increasing in 19 of the previous 21 months, churn declined in each of the final three months of 2024, according to the research company’s State of Subscriptions: Premium SVOD - 2024 Year in Review study.
The not-so-good news: The percentage of customers cancelling their premium streaming subscription, defined as churn, is still really high. Antenna reports that the top nine U.S. subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services collectively added 174.3 million subscribers in 2024, but they saw 147.8 million customers cancel their plan. Their collective customer retention rate fell from 22% in 2022 to just 15% last year.
The Antenna report examines Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Max, Paramount+, Peacock, Apple TV+, Starz and Discovery+. While customer additions for these streaming services increased by more than 29% from 2022 - 2024, subscriber attrition grew by nearly 51%. Meanwhile, Antenna found that many subscribers who cancel their SVOD service end up coming back. While the total number of customers quitting the services (defined as gross churn) was still at around 5% at the end of 2024, “net churn” which factors in customers who return, was under 3%.
Beyond measuring churn, Antenna’s report also examined, among numerous other business trends, premium SVOD pricing, which has risen steadily for all providers. The report found that average pricing for ad-free plans rose, on average, from $11 a month to $14 from 2022 - 2024, a 22.8% increase.
Among the nine SVODs examined by Antenna, the report also found that the average price for ad-supported services rose from $6.00 a month to $7.50 over the same span.
Without disaggregating every chart from Antenna’s report, we ID’d one more graphic of particular interest — one that elegantly reveals the impact of Amazon Prime Video Channels on the growth of Apple TV+. According to the research company, Apple’s premium streaming service, which first entered Amazon’s Channels marketplace back in October, received 25% of its signups from Prime Video Channels in December.
And notably, only 48% of Apple TV+ customers who sign up via Apple’s App Store are first-time users, but 73% of those who enlist via Prime Video Channels have never had the service before. According to Antenna, Apple TV+ captured 1.5 million total signups via Amazon Channels in Q4 2024.
Read more details from Antenna’s report, including retention of the Max-Hulu-Disney+ bundle here.