2020 was a big year for streaming TV.
Disney+ established its place as Netflix's top competitor and new platforms like NBCUniversal's Peacock and WarnerMedia's HBO Max entered the space. The industry also benefited from people socially distancing and being home more due to the pandemic.
But as pandemic restrictions ease, people are getting back to a sense of "normalcy." That could mean reevaluating their subscriptions.
A new report from the Wall Street firm UBS released on Thursday broke down which streaming services could face the most churn in the US, or the most subscription cancellations. UBS Evidence Lab conducted a survey of 2,000 US adults from April 8 to April 26 to determine the findings.
75% of the respondents said that they subscribe to a streaming service, up from 71% the same time last year. But the number remained the same from a December survey, suggesting subscription-streaming mania is slowing as people get back to a semblance of their pre-pandemic lives.
ViacomCBS's Showtime and Paramount+ were among the services that could face the highest churn, with 39% and 24% of respondents, respectfully, indicating intent to churn. Lionsgate's Starz came in at No. 2 with 31%.
Showtime and Starz are both premium cable networks with standalone subscription platforms. Paramount+, a rebranded and expanded version of CBS All Access, is the newest service, launching in March.
This wouldn't be the first time Showtime faced churn concerns. Data from the analytics company Antenna, released in February, showed that Showtime's streaming service had a churn rate of more than 10% by the end of 2020, with only Apple TV+ having a higher rate compared to streaming competitors.
Netflix and HBO Max could face the lowest churn, according to the survey. 11% and 12%, respectfully, indicated intent to cancel their subscriptions.
Netflix had 207 million subscribers worldwide, 67 million of which are in the US, as of its April Q1 earnings report (in which it missed its growth target by 2 million subscribers). Max had 9.7 million retail subscribers as of April.
While survey respondents can overstate their willingness to cancel subscriptions, the report does give a sense of which platforms could be most at risk when consumers evaluate subscription spending. Here's each streaming service included in the survey and the percentage of respondents who indicated they were likely to churn:
- Showtime — 39%
- Starz — 31%
- Paramount+ — 24%
- ESPN+ — 22%
- Peacock — 17%
- Disney+ — 16%
- Discovery+ — 15%
- Hulu — 14%
- HBO Max — 12%
- Netflix — 11%
