Resubscription Is On The Rise

Last week, we released the latest Antenna State of Subscriptions Report and said the streaming video industry has entered a new phase that requires services to engage in more advanced subscriber management. One area of opportunity for streamers: win-backs.

The rate at which users resubscribe is increasing. In 2023, 30% of Premium SVOD Gross Additions were “resubscribers,” meaning these users were previously subscribed to and had since canceled that same service within the previous 12 months.

AppleTV+ saw the highest instance of resubscription rates at 37.2%. Netflix’s resubscribe rate fell to 26% in 2023 from about 35% the previous year; this was driven by the password sharing crackdown which led to many first-time sign-ups by individuals who had previously used the service through another person’s account.

As resubscribing behavior grows in prominence, services’ strategies for winning back customers are increasingly important. Looking at Weighted Averages across the Premium SVOD category, 23% of cancels were “won-back” by Month 3; that share increases to 41% by Month 12.

Netflix and Peacock boosted the most win-backs for the cohort with 30% of users who canceled in Q3’22 resubscribing by Month 3. By Month 12, 46% of Netflix cancels and 50% of Peacock cancels were won-back. 

If you’re interested in downloading your own copy of Antenna’s Q1’24 State of Subscriptions Report, you can sign-up to receive it automatically on our homepage. If you’re already on our distribution list, you should have received a link to download a copy on February 27, the day the report was released. (PS - Antenna clients received early access to an expanded client-only version of the report!)

For more detailed information on Antenna’s methodology and definitions of core metrics, please visit http://www.antenna.live/methodology.