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However, streaming services that have managed to pay for it may find their users turning away. Users facing rising cost of living and associated rising prices for various streaming platforms. Since launching in Europe in 2014, Netflix prices for the standard offering have increased from 8.99 euros to 13.49 euros per month in 2024. And let’s also keep in mind that recently users have been faced with stricter account sharing restrictions.
So let’s face it: a subscription to a video streaming platform remains relatively affordable compared to the amount of content available, or even just compared to the price of movie tickets. But could the rising price trend be a major blow for the streaming giants?
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As we recently reported to you in our columns, Netflix ended 2023 well, leaving its competitors behind in terms of the number of users. However, if you believe the Wall Street Journal’s Antenna study, which focuses on the American market, platforms are increasingly concerned about “churn” or “unsubscription”. 25% of American subscribers have canceled at least three streaming packages in the last two years, compared to just 15% two years earlier.
Prices of the most important streaming platforms ©IPM Graphics
Turbulence is coming
“The churn rate of customers from high-end streaming services reached 6.3% in November, compared to 5.1% a year ago,” the Antenna study continued. According to them, consumers would no longer hesitate to subscribe to watch the shows or series they expect and then unsubscribe until the next offer that interests them. One in four people register again within four months of deregistering. An inconsistency that could cause turbulence in the skies of the streaming giants, even if the net subscriber ratio (new subscribers minus unsubscribes) remains positive.
Also note that with the countless platforms and their sometimes exclusive content – Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Discovery+, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, Starz… – Americans (publicly surveyed in the report) are enough to lose their minds to lose.
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A study by data analytics company CivicScience announced last summer that subscribers to video streaming services were experiencing a form of “subscription fatigue,” a trend that is even stronger than with linear TV offerings.
“Streamers who tend to watch original content from providers (Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.) are 12% more likely than those who watch live TV (like Sling TV or Hulu + Live) to say they have subscription fatigue “says the study. “Good news” for “old-fashioned” TV networks, you might say.
Towards the disappearance of the cheapest offers?
If in Belgium the Netflix offer “Essential” is still available at 8.99 euros, we can note that it is no longer offered in France (even if subscribers who have subscribed to it still benefit from it) and that it is in the United States was simply removed states.
However, for smaller budgets that can accommodate commercials, there is still the option to subscribe to the offer with ads for $7.99 per month in the US and 6.99 euros in several European countries, but not in Belgium (the option was removed in 2023 introduced). , applies only in Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom for Europe and in Australia, Brazil, South Korea, Canada, Japan, Mexico and the United States for the rest of the world.
In summary, the streaming market appears to be starting to change. The major players hope to raise their prices and become profitable, but competition is still fierce and some are losing money. The market consolidation phase, from which the “biggest” often benefit, has not yet clearly begun.
Canal+, Streamz, Sky, … Why are European platforms “blocked”?
“To be honest, it annoys me not to have access to Canal+ from Belgium,” says Elodie, a French subscriber living in Belgium. She has a Netflix subscription and a subscription to the French service Canal+, but she can only access them via her smartphone and via an address linked to her family living in France. “If I had to choose between this subscription and my Netflix subscription, I wouldn’t hesitate for a second, I would choose Canal,” she says, even if she doesn’t pay too much attention to the prices at the moment. A decision for Canal+ out of patriotism? “No, the catalog is of better quality. I could definitely be happy with that,” she says.
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“To be honest, it annoys me not to have access to Canal+ from Belgium.”
But why then do American platforms outperform local platforms like Streamz (Telenet) in Belgium and Canal+ in France?
First, there is the problem that American culture and language is extremely widespread around the world, which benefits American platforms.
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In addition, the initial investments and the domestic market with more than 300 million potential consumers have allowed American platforms to be more economical compared to the cost of film production. The same applies to the costs associated with adapting to foreign markets. In addition, due to the significantly smaller European national markets with different languages, it is more difficult and expensive to offer national productions abroad.
Finally, the various European content distribution regulations – some of which benefit from tax incentives (such as the tax advantage in Belgium) – may reduce the scope for action. Platforms like Canal+, Streamz and others are therefore increasingly negotiating among themselves to offer their catalogs to their counterparts in different countries, not necessarily under their own banner, in order to make them profitable. For example, Canal+ has an agreement with Netflix and Streamz (Telenet) with HBO. A practice that could spread to the United States, where studios are struggling to make their own platforms profitable. They could sell their productions under license instead of letting them fall into obscurity, for example. But once again, it’s the big fish with the most subscribers that comes out on top in this streaming war.
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