UK subscribers are casting aside the cost of living crisis and paying £696 a year on subscription services every year – on top of their ‘standard’ bills such as TV, phone and the internet.
Bango’s European Subscription Wars report surveyed 5,000 subscribers in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.
The UK and Germany spend the most on subscription services with 3.3 per head, followed by Spain (3.2), Italy (3.1) and France (3.0). 1 in 8 Britons are paying more than £100 a month for their subscriptions, amounting to £1,200 per year.
70% are subscribing to SVOD, ahead of retail (44%), Music (34%) and Food (19%).
Although Europeans are spending less than their counterparts in the United States – €696 compared to €863 – European subscribers are cutting back to save money, with almost half (42%) cancelling a subscription due to a recent price increase (48% in Italy). Nearly two-thirds (60%) say they can’t afford all the subscriptions they would like. This number is 65% in Spain.
The introduction of lower-priced ad supported tiers has led to a third (31%) of subscribers
downgrading to a cheaper ad tier since its introduction. Over a quarter (26%) have upgraded their subscription, while even more (28%) have canceled. Over three-quarters (76%) believe paid subscriptions should never display ads.
However, 22% say they are willing to pay for a subscription service to watch the Euros – even though the football competition will be widely available on free-to-air channels. 20% will pay to watch the Olympics – suggesting good news for Warner Bros. Discovery’s subscription offer where consumers are not satisfied with the public broadcasting offer.
There is a desire among subscribers for both flexibility and control with a little over a quarter (28%) of subscribers being unaware of how much they spend on montly subscriptions. Over half (54%) want to opt out of automatic renewals, rising to 59% for Italy.
For many, bundling offers a halfway point between the two. 1 in 5 (21%) subscribers now go indirect for their subscriptions, signing up via bundles and deals from third-party services like broadband providers.
In the United States, Verizon’s +play customers can manage their Xbox Game Pass, Max, NFL, and Snapchat+ accounts on one platform, while in Australia, Optus customers can combine their Netflix, Calm, Kindle, and Sweat subscriptions under a single SubHub roof.
European telcos are already creating subscription-based deals but few combine subscriptions outside SVOD. In the UK, BT offers packages that include subscriptions to services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and NOW TV.
France’s Orange offers a bundle called “Love & Go” which includes high-speed internet, TV, and a Netflix subscription.
Over a third of subscribers (38%) would pay a higher bill if a package of popular subscriptions was automatically included, with the average subscriber willing to pay 17%
more.
Over half (54%) of European subscribers would be more loyal to a brand that offered an all-in-one subscription service, while over a third (39%) would leave their current provider if this service became available elsewhere.
Commissioned by Bango and conducted by independent research agency 3Gem. The research for Subscription Wars: Super Bundling Awakens Europe was undertaken between May and June 2024.
