With the maturation of the streaming industry and continued focus on profitable growth, services are increasingly working to improve and optimize their performance. From new plans and bundles to promotions and price increases, there has been a wave of activity in recent months as streamers work to bring in new customers and keep their existing ones.
In looking at the current state of the market for Premium and Specialty SVOD*, Antenna data indicates over 50M Gross Adds in the past two quarters. Gross Adds increased +22.0% in Q1’24 compared to 2023 and are up +36.5% compared to 2022. Q1’24 marked the first quarter where Antenna measured under 5M SVOD Net Adds since the start of 2022. While the top-of-funnel remained healthy, there were a record number of Cancels (50.4M) in the quarter.
In this more competitive environment, streamers are introducing new plans, packages, pricing models, and promotional strategies. One area playing an increasingly important role is that of ad-supported service tiers. For the first time ever, Antenna measured the majority of Gross Adds flowing to ad-supported tiers. Ad-supported plans accounted for more than 50% of Gross Adds in both Q4’23 and Q1’24.
In Antenna’s Q2’24 State of Subscriptions Report, we take a closer look into the impact of various pricing and packaging strategies, including:
- The increasing importance of ad-supported tiers;
- Bundling and why it requires a thoughtful approach;
- Promotional pricing impacts on acquisition and customer lifetime value;
- Annual vs. Monthly plans and;
- Price increases and volatility.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll highlight some of the analyses featured in the report here on the Insights Blog.
If you’re interested in downloading your own copy of the full report, you can sign-up to receive it automatically on our homepage. If you’re already on our distribution list, check your email - we’ve sent out a download link to everyone who has opted-in to receive communication from Antenna. If you’re an existing Antenna client, you have exclusive access to a client-only expanded version of the Q2’24 State of Subscriptions report.
For more detailed information on Antenna’s methodology and definitions of core metrics, please visit http://www.antenna.live/methodology.
* Premium SVOD includes 9 Services: Apple TV+, Discovery+, Disney+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock, and Starz. Specialty SVOD includes 32 Services: A&E Crime Central*, Acorn TV, ALLBLK*, AMC+*, BBC Select, BET+, BritBox, Cinemax, Crunchyroll*, CuriosityStream*, Doc Club, Docurama, Fox Nation*, Funimation*, Gaia*, Hallmark Movies Now*, History Vault*, Lifetime Movie Club*, MGM+*, Noggin*, PBS Documentaries, PBS KIDS, PBS Living, PBS Masterpiece, PureFlix*, Shudder*, Sundance Now*, Topic, True Royalty, UP Faith & Family*, ViX Premium*, and Zeus Network* (*denotes that Direct distribution is not covered)
Brendan Brady is a Content Strategy Associate at Antenna, a measurement and analytics company providing insight into purchase behavior and subscription metrics across the new media landscape.
