Half of streaming platform users would accept advertising to reduce costs
Netflix may have hit the nail on the head. A week after the leading streaming platform announced that it will launch a new subscription version with ads at 5.49 euros, the majority of users seem to favour this route.
GECA’s October OTT consumption barometer shows that 55.6% of Spanish users would accept the introduction of advertising on subscription platforms if it were accompanied by a reduction in the monthly fee. This conclusion opens the door for other platforms to rethink, as Netflix has done, its offer of subscription modalities. Of Netflix’s current users, 34.3% say they would possibly try the new option, which would not affect more than half of its subscribers (52.1%), who would prefer to keep the same conditions as before.
The global economic outlook marked by uncertainty also has an impact in this field. So much so that 1 in 4 users in Spain is considering cancelling these services due to the economic crisis, although 2 out of 4 say that in principle they would not consider it because they consider the price to be affordable. If the subscription quota were lower, half of the users would join more video on demand platforms (49.1%) compared to the other half (50.9%) who would maintain the current number of subscriptions, considering that it is “sufficient”.
Netflix also wants to take the lead in clamping down on account sharing, which it is expected to do by early 2023. GECA’s consultation shows that 40.6% of OTT users share accounts outside the home. Four in 10 of these users give passwords to only one third party, three in 10 to two people and almost two in 10 to three.
Netflix repeats all-time high and Disney+, the fastest growing.
Despite the cascade of declines that Netflix has been registering globally -now contained-, in Spain it seems to be saving the day. An example of this is the historic record it set in October. 75.4% of platform users are subscribed to Netflix, the same figure it reached in April 2020, after increasing by almost one percentage point compared to last July.
Fuente: GECA
The other major player in this wave is Disney+, which holds the bronze medal with 36.1% of the total number of users, as it is the platform that has grown the most, with 1.3 percentage points more.
Prime Video, the second platform to which 70% of viewers subscribe, has fallen by almost one percentage point.
HBO Max also fell by one point to 32% of users. The positive side of this platform is the success of The Dragon House, the series that has managed to win the loyalty of 1 out of every 3 users of this service.
