"Instead of staying loyal to one platform, younger viewers are increasingly treating streaming services like temporary rentals: subscribe, binge, cancel, and repeat. A new report from entertainment company IGN found 59% of Gen Zers today actively subscribe and then unsubscribe to a streaming service just to watch their favorite show, shifting platforms away from long-term entertainment homes."
"Subscription-based streaming services were in their heyday during the pandemic years, when people had little to entertain them besides the shows it seemed like everyone was talking about on your Zoom, like Tiger King and The Queen's Gambit. But the study-a survey of 6,250 of what the researchers call "highly-engaged entertainment consumers" across the U.S., U.K., and Australia-found the streaming business model may be floundering, at least for younger viewers."
"Despite their frustration, younger people still subscribed to the most platforms out of any generation. Gen Z and millennials hold the most subscriptions, averaging 3.51 and 3.27 active services, respectively. But that's down from an average of 4.54 subscriptions for all generations in 2024, according to . Still, U.S. consumers are spending on average $69 per month for subscriptions, according to Deloitte."
"Even as young people cling on to some subscriptions-and Americans overall are still more likely to use streaming than cable or satellite-the rate of new signups has lulled. Subscription growth fell to 7% last year, down from 12% in 2024, according to Antenna, a subscription economy data provider. And young people are playing a big role in shifting away from"
Streaming services depend on consumers managing multiple subscriptions, but younger viewers are moving away from long-term loyalty. Gen Z increasingly treats subscriptions like temporary rentals: subscribing to watch a specific show, bingeing, then canceling and repeating on other platforms. A survey of highly engaged entertainment consumers across the U.S., U.K., and Australia found 59% of Gen Zers actively subscribe and unsubscribe to watch favorite shows. Subscription growth has slowed, with new signups declining compared with earlier periods. Even with this shift, younger people still maintain more subscriptions than other generations, averaging about 3.51 active services for Gen Z and 3.27 for millennials. Americans still spend about $69 per month on subscriptions, and streaming remains more common than cable or satellite.
Read at Fortune
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