While Netflix continues to steadily acquire mobile users across the globe, other SVOD services are actually being abandoned by these smartphone watchers in select regions, a new study by Juniper Research suggests.
The research company polled 500 mobile video watchers in the U.S., UK and China in September. According to its findings, in the U.S., Netflix was the only service that showed positive retention, with 6.3% more users reporting adoption of the platform vs. those saying they plan to abandon it over the next six months.
Rival subscription video on demand (SVOD) platform Amazon Prime, however, was in the red at -2.9%, while HBO Now experienced a whopping -19.2% among the U.S. users sampled.
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So just how revealing is Juniper’s sampling? Beyond the fact that the UK research company doesn't express any timelines to its research, it's all somewhat questionable. In February, HBO Now confirmed steep subscriber growth to 5 million users, with the platform being amply distributed through Amazon Channels. And over the spring, Amazon confirmed that its Amazon Prime program—which, in addition to SVOD, includes stuff like free shipping—now has 100 million users.
For its part, however, Juniper seems to want to make the point that heavy video users are adopting more than one SVOD platform, but are struggling to find the right combination of services.
“The use of multiple subscriptions suggests that no one provider offers enough to currently satisfy consumers,” said Lauren Foye, who authored the Juniper report. “Juniper finds a growing danger in users reducing, or switching SVOD subscriptions, as monthly fees inevitably rise as a result of ever-increasing content spend; Netflix alone is set to spend $13 billion this year.”
