Thirty-two million subscribers canceled what research company Antenna identifies as the 10 premium U.S. subscription streaming services in September, offsetting the gross addition of 37.2 million new customers.
The overall 6% churn rate represented a significant uptick over the spring and was matched only by a similar spike in Q3 2021, during which U.S. SVOD industry churn reached nearly 7%.
Two years is probably not enough to establish a cyclical trend similar to the pay TV industry, which has traditionally shed subscribers in Q2 as warming weather convinces consumers they don't need to say at home and watch TV as much.
Still, it's interesting.
Also read: Churn Is Back: 32 Million U.S. Households Are 'Service Hoppers,' Parks Says
Overall, churn for the "premium" U.S. SVOD services has been a lot higher in 2022 than it has been previously, with cancellations averaging over 25 million each quarter.
While not the only driver of this increase, Antenna suggests that the biggest U.S. SVOD company, Netflix, could be largely to blame.
Netflix, which experienced a significant uptick in Q3 churn in 2021, had an even bigger one this September, with domestic churn increasing to around 3.7%.
The three charts below analyze churn for every major U.S. SVOD service save for Amazon Prime Video.
