Research from DailyStoke has revealed that streaming platforms have become an indispensable part of American lives, finding 62% of saying subscribing to streaming services is necessary, and one in four could not live without subscribing to a service.
The study took the opinion of 1,000 American consumers who subscribe to popular streaming services give insights and opinions on all the different platforms available.
Overall, nine in ten Americans said that they prefer to stream compared with cable TV. On average Americans were spending $46 a month to stream their favourite shows, movies, and music. Yet the majority believed streaming subscription costs were overpriced, and nearly half did not believe the platforms offer enough to justify the subscription costs. But Americans aren’t ditching their subscriptions just yet. WI the large numbers finding streaming a necessity, even when they tried to cancel services most Americans resubscribe at a later date.
The vast majority of Americans liked the content that’s offered through different streaming platforms. Reacting to the situation where a new show is released, skyrockets in popularity and then becomes exclusive to a particular service, three in four Americans will sign up for a free trial on a new platform just to watch something specific, and of those that do, one in ten end up forgetting to cancel that trial.
The report found some of the most important factors consumers considered when choosing a service included content, price and user experience. Price-wise, consumers vote Prime Video as their top service followed by Netflix and Hulu. When it comes to content, Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+ were considered to have the best to offer. When asked if they could only subscribe to one streaming service, Americans said they would choose Netflix followed by Max and Prime Video. The average person subscribed to 4 different streaming services but the majority (69%) of consumers felt there were too many streaming services.
More than three in ten Americans shared their streaming service platforms with non-household members. The majority of these types of accounts are shared with mothers, sisters, brothers, and friends. For people that share an account, 28% split the monthly subscription cost with those who share the password. The average American was found to be saving $15 a month through password sharing.
More than three-quarters (79%) of Americans regarded it as acceptable to share streaming service passwords with people they did not live with, and two in five did not think the platforms should be cracking down on those who share passwords. Half of American consumers said that they would cancel their subscriptions if providers continued to implement measures against password sharing, and 64% already admitted to being frustrated by current measures taken by providers.