Survey: Roughly Half of American Streaming Subscribers Don’t Think They’re Getting Value for Their Money

According to a new survey by Daily Stoke on American consumer opinions, almost half of streaming subscribers — 46% — don’t think streaming subscriptions offer enough value to justify their prices, with 66% saying they believe subscriptions are overpriced more generally. The average consumer is spending $46 on monthly streaming subscriptions, and they aren’t happy about it. This is likely bad news for a Hollywood system that seems fixed on moving as much of their content as possible to streaming, but perhaps better news for the studios — it’s most of them — who are increasingly investing in FAST (free, ad-supported TV) platforms that essentially ditch the traditional streaming model in exchange for a return to the feel of television.

Half of those surveyed said they would likely cancel their subscription if a platform cracked down on password sharing. Only 20% said services ought to crack down on the practice, which is likely because even if you buy the argument that password sharing is costing the platforms money, consumers are mostly smart enough to understand a change would only result in higher profits, not price reduction. After all, Netflix just dropped their $9.99 basic ad-free option altogether, so the writing is on the wall that streamers are planning for prices only to go up.

A large majority if those surveyed — 79% — said they think it’s fine to share passwords with family members, even if they don’t live in the same house. Those who practice password sharing are reportedly saving about $15 per month by doing so.

There is some good news for streamers: 94% of subscribers said they enjoyed the content offered by their streaming platforms, and 62% said they think being subscribed to at least one streaming service is necessary given the current entertainment landscape.

There are a few things not specifically linked to customer satisfaction, but still worth pointing out: free trials remain a key part of the streaming world, with 74% of respondents saying they had signed up for a free trial in order to watch a specific piece of content, and about 10% of those saying they later forgot to cancel the trial. About 2/3 of those in the survey also said they had cancelled a service, then rejoined later.

Another common complaint is the sheer number of platforms, and how hard it is to find any given piece of media if you don’t already know where it’s streaming. That’s something audiences have increasingly been frustrated with since the number of services started to balloon a few years ago. After all, it was only about a decade ago that you went either to Netflix, or to a brick-and-mortar video store, and in both cases you could find the vast majority if what you wanted in that one place. The dispersion of content is not only frustrating audiences, but increasing the amount they have to pay monthly.