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Netflix Is The Least-Cancelled of All Major Streaming Services, Says Study (exstreamist.com) 72

Posted by BeauHD from the top-of-the-food-chain dept.
An anonymous reader writes from a report via Exstreamist: A recent survey from IBM suggests that nearly 70% of streaming service subscribers never canceled their subscriptions. One of the more likely reasons subscribers cancel is because their credit cards expire and they never get around to updating the information in each service. The other most likely reasons subscribers cancel is because of advertisements (27%), which was above price (25%). Netflix is the least likely to get cancelled of the major services, according to the survey. Hulu and Amazon had a larger number of total cancellations. In terms of numbers, 40% of consumers have stated they have cancelled either Hulu or Amazon, with only 30% having cancelled Netflix. Shortly behind advertisements and price, 20% of users said a lack in quality or quantity of content would likely make them cancel their service. More towards the bottom, 17% said technical issues that hinder a smooth viewing experience would cause them to cancel. Roughly 73% of subscribers would download Netflix content, according to one survey. Another survey suggests that a majority of Netflix subscribers would rather cancel their subscription than see advertisements.
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Netflix Is The Least-Cancelled of All Major Streaming Services, Says Study More

Netflix Is The Least-Cancelled of All Major Streaming Services, Says Study

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  • Streaming is decent (Score:5, Informative)

    by The Grim Reefer ( 1162755 ) on Monday July 11, 2016 @05:30PM (#52492171)

    I've been using Netflix for a long time now. I recently got a notice that my streaming pricing was going to change. I'd been paying $7.99/ month for the streaming portion for 4 screens in HD. Apparently they've had a couple of price increases over the years, but they never passed those on to me until recently. Most companies would have changed my pricing each time. Being a company that treats its customers even half way decent gets them a lot of goodwill from me.

    I do wish Netflix still had BBC programing, and some other stuff. But I also understand that some things are out of their control. Probably my biggest complaint is that they have become pretty slow in replacing older movies that they had on DVD.

    • Re: Streaming is decent (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Mostly that's because the BBC (and some other content producers) seek higher fees for exclusive licensing agreements or they decide to launch their own streaming services. Both are bad for consumers as they force them to subscribe to more services and pay higher prices for content. Your issue is with BBC, not Netflix.

    • Re:Streaming is decent (Score:4, Insightful)

      by thevirtualcat ( 1071504 ) on Monday July 11, 2016 @05:58PM (#52492363)

      I remember that. Two years ago, they sent out emails saying "New subscribers will pay $9.99/month, but you'll be able to keep your $7.99/month price for two years."

      Two years later, here we are.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Man, if only all companies gave 2 years notice of a price increase.

        Netflix might be particularly sensitive to price changes though, due to their history. When they split up streaming and DVD rental (re-naming the later Qwikster), and increased the prices, it caused a near riot that cost them 800,000 subscribers.

        • I wish companies would also notify you when prices go down. I've been bit by that a few times. Ie, get a new smart phone and realize I'd been overpaying quite a lot by having a cheap voice plan to which was added the cheapest dataplan versus having the cheapest dataplan and adding unlimited voice.

    • I don't know about the States, but here in Canada long-time customers were given a grandfathered period without increases, but mine was recently increased. Mind you, there is a lot of new programs available now; all the Star Trek series in particular, so as I busily rewatch TOS and DS9, not to mention other series like Hell On Wheels and X Files, I figure the price is worth it. Besides, compared to the absolute shit that is other streaming services in Canada (Shomi's Android app is just a gawdawful unstable

    • My cc expired, in the middle of binge watching, with no explanation. I didn't mean to cancel, but I got amazon prime two says later.

      Recommendations aren't nearly as spot on, but Wtf ?

      Now I paid for prime, Netflix lost me for a year. It's not like they will expire their owned content. Fuck me, they will do that just to boost profits, but not anytime soon.

      • So your bitch is that Netflix suspended your account when you failed to pay, and didn't notify you (likely they did, you just spammed the messages)? You poor dear...I feel bad for Netflix that they lost such a valuable customer.

    • I do wish Netflix still had BBC programing, and some other stuff.

      Don't worry, kickass still has it. That's much more convenient anyway.

    • I am not sure about other BBC programs, but Amazon Prime video has Doctor Who, so they are likely the ones who paid the requested rate this time around.

  • Nearly 15 years of service (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Monday July 11, 2016 @05:31PM (#52492187) Homepage Journal

    And if I see any ads, I'm canceling. Why would I pay for service with ads? Makes no damn sense.

    • Why would I pay for service with ads? Makes no damn sense.

      Because ads subsidize the content. You pay less than you would. That makes sense to many people. They still buy newspapers, magazines, and watch cable TV. You'd rather pay more and have no ads. It's a tradeoff.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by dfghjk ( 711126 )

        "Because ads subsidize the content."

        Not always and not likely in this case. Ads increase revenue, nothing ensures that ad-supported pricing will be lower due to the ads.

      • No, you pay more if there are ads. When 33% of the programming is full of advertisements, they don't start charging you 66% of the price, not even 75%. It's more like they charge you 90% at an introductory subscription rate then bump you back to full price. Comcast has made dumptrucks full of money this way.

        • And to the extent that ads raise revenues, all the content producers raise their prices (and salaries) to get part of the increased revenue as well. This happened big time to netflix with Stars.

        • No, you pay more if there are ads.

          Citation required. Your "example" is so full of misdefined terms that it is meaningless. What is "66% of the price"? The price is what you are charged for the service. How do you get charged 66% of what you are charged? Now, if you meant "cost", then you need to provide a cite for that. But even you admit that you only get back to "full price" after some "promo" period, and "full price" is not more than full price.

          A simple counter-example is, of course, a newspaper. If you think you're paying the full cos

    • And if I see any ads, I'm canceling. Why would I pay for service with ads? Makes no damn sense.

      And if you cancel, where do you go? Other than Hulu and Amazon Video, there is not much else that can compete in terms of content for a dirt-cheap price.

      Even with adds, it would still be cheaper than cable. A combination of netflix with some other streaming services and an internet connection is the closest thing we have to a-la-carte cable.

      So until cable companies decide to provide a-la-carte plans that people can cancel at any times without penalties, I'd be willing to see adds on Netflix. I hate ad

  • They don't mind if you cancel either (Score:5, Insightful)

    by coolsnowmen ( 695297 ) on Monday July 11, 2016 @05:31PM (#52492189)
    Notice that a good service doesn't give a shit if you cancel. Unlike every other service I've have: Verizon, comcast, AT&T

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by dog77 ( 1005249 )
      And they make it very quick and easy to cancel online.
    • I dropped Netflix a few months ago, for a couple of reasons. One was that they weren't keeping a lot of the classic TV I like (don't care for most of the newer shows or their "Netflix Originals"). The other was I don't like how they started shrinking the closing credits into a small box on the Roku without an option to turn that "feature" off by default. Annoying to have to grab the remote at the end of a show or movie to enlarge the credits. I'm mainly watching Hulu now, along with CBS All Access and Acorn

  • I can understand... (Score:3)

    by aicrules ( 819392 ) on Monday July 11, 2016 @05:32PM (#52492201)
    While Netflix left me wanting when they originally split streaming off as a separate service, I canceled the DVD portion in favor of keeping the on-demand streaming. They don't have EVERYTHING in their catalog, but compared to Hulu and Amazon Prime I am more likely to find what I want to watch in Netflix. That is true both for original content and regular content. Hulu I got solely to get 11.22.63 since I liked the book. After that I didn't have a reason to keep it based on the few shows I had a vague interest in. Amazon Prime I kept primarily because of its connection to Prime Shipping, but I have watched Prime few enough times that I'm ready to cancel it next month. Maybe it's just because I'm so accustomed to Netflix, but I feel I can find something to watch on Netflix that I will enjoy nearly 100% of the time. And with Prime and others I just don't have that hit rate. Could even be that Netflix UI is just better for me that the others.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Gr8Apes ( 679165 )
      When Netflix split streaming off, I stuck with disks. Haven't regretted it yet.

    • While Netflix left me wanting when they originally split streaming off as a separate service, I canceled the DVD portion in favor of keeping the on-demand streaming. They don't have EVERYTHING in their catalog, but compared to Hulu and Amazon Prime I am more likely to find what I want to watch in Netflix. That is true both for original content and regular content. Hulu I got solely to get 11.22.63 since I liked the book. After that I didn't have a reason to keep it based on the few shows I had a vague interest in. Amazon Prime I kept primarily because of its connection to Prime Shipping, but I have watched Prime few enough times that I'm ready to cancel it next month. Maybe it's just because I'm so accustomed to Netflix, but I feel I can find something to watch on Netflix that I will enjoy nearly 100% of the time. And with Prime and others I just don't have that hit rate. Could even be that Netflix UI is just better for me that the others.

      Interesting. I'm about to cancel Amazon Prime because 1) I don't use shipping that much, and 2) most of the shows I watch are already on Netflix and Hulu. As for these two, sometimes I want to cancel one or the other, depending what's on the show.

      I'm keeping Hulu because it carries the latest Naruto Shippuden episodes (yeah, I'm a fan) and The Daily Show, my kids watch Sailor Moon and Dragon-Ball and my wife watches Dance Moms and Modern Family. Plus Hulu has a ton of really good old movies from the Crite

  • 10 months for 3 years (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mishotaki ( 957104 ) on Monday July 11, 2016 @06:19PM (#52492513)
    I'm a recurring canceler on Netflix... as a Canadian with half of the content, I run out of content after a while and simply cancel my subscription to renew it a few months later and have new stuff pup up that interests me.

    • I'm a recurring canceler on Netflix... as a Canadian with half of the content, I run out of content after a while and simply cancel my subscription to renew it a few months later and have new stuff pup up that interests me.

      That's the cool thing with Netflix (and Hulu). We can cancel and re-join at any time without paying penalties. Try that with cable :/

    • Netflix streaming reminds me of grocery store VHS rentals in the 1980's. Lots of B-grade and lower stuff. The only reason I keep my subscription is that my wife watches some of their original content. Their percentage conversion of DVD to streaming is pathetic.

  • I've often browsed thru multiple menu trees to a single episode before it tells me I have to pay.
    The mixture of paid and free content is very offputting.

    Paid vs Free needs to be at the top of the choice list and a checkbox on the search function (even a user setting).

    However, amazed they get cancelled a lot since it's tied to Prime which is free shipping on Amazon.

    • As the cheapest option with a working remote I bought an Amazon TV stick and it makes it easy to avoid that stuff, because it has a prime video category. Why Amazon hasn't figure out that this is a good idea everywhere is beyond me.

  • Maybe in the US... (Score:3)

    by Torp ( 199297 ) on Monday July 11, 2016 @06:33PM (#52492625)

    When they launched in my country with 1/10 of the content at best (including missing their own House of Cards), i ran out of things to see way before my free trial month ended and promptly canceled.

    • Count yourself lucky you are not exposed to the vast toxic cultural wasteland that is American TV shows. You should send Netflix a cheque of gratitude, just for saving your country from having to watch the horrid white supremacy-supporting bullshit the US media turns out.

  • They started to block DNS/VPN (Canada to US) services and blocked mine so I blocked their access to my wallet. I had Netflix for about 4 years and Hulu for a couple. I cancelled about 2-3 months ago and you know what its like it never existed. The kid cried foul but that's a personal millennial problem, once I told him he can pay for it himself he too totally forgot it existed.

  • Honestly after wrapping up Mad Men (finally) and Breaking Bad, I really don't watch much Netflix anymore (and zero regular cable TV which is only still there for the POSSLQ). Just in a holding pattern waiting for new seasons of Jessica Jones, Bojack Horseman (which I have re-watched at least five times), Longmire, and River. Better Call Saul too, I guess, but I really do hate prequels of any sort.

    So my activity would be an occasional binge bulge with lots of flat lines in between, but there are fewer bum

  • I know this as a user of both.

    Netflix deals with my bandwidth fluctuations much better and has more/better content. I don't dismiss Amazon outright, there's some really good stuff there as well, it's just harder to browse for and it's much more difficult to play back on a living room device that isn't Android based.

    Which has more staying power?

    Amazon - for reasons completely unrelated to their video streaming.

    My Amazon Prime account paid for itself inside of a few months on shipping bicycle parts alone. I

  • When I first subscribed to cable (and later satellite) it was to get commercial free programming. Slowly, they introduced ads until they dominated the programs. I recently cut the cord on my DirecTV service. I was paying over $100 a month and it felt like 50% of the programs was ads. Not worth it. Note to ALL content providers...you can charge me for content...or you can give me free content with ads (i.e. someone else is paying you to give me free programming)...you can't do BOTH.
    • I recently did a quick analysis on ad-load on satellite TV (AMC, SyFy, IFC, etc.). A typical 110-minute movie will have 10 commercial breaks averaging 5 minutes, so that's 50 minutes of ads for 110 minutes of content, while some movies are padded out with ads to a 3-hour time slot. That computes to 30 to 40% ads and 60-70% content. I have to think that it really has gotten worse over the years.

      I take the .avi files off my DVR and edit all those ads out, a process I have semi-automated with a spreadshe

  • OK, I did like House of Cards until it got too weird and that was that. But there really isn't a lot of great content unless you like Charlie Sheen's Major League or Will Farrell or Adam Sandler or old Croc Dundees. Thiiiiiiiiis close to cancelling. Amazon Prime isn't any better, and I have that one too.

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