Kantar says Prime Video subscribers rebelling after ad ultimatum
APRIL 25, 2024 13.51 EUROPE/LONDON BY JULIAN CLOVER

Prime Video’s introduction of an ad-supported tier was met with significant resistance, according to Kantar’s latest analysis of the UK streaming market.

It says the Amazon-run service has seen a “notable subscriber exodus” and dissatisfaction after subscribers were asked to pay a £2.99 supplement to remain ad free.

The immediate response was for hundreds of thousands of subscribers to leave tge service.

Key metrics, including share of new subscribers, total number of subscribers and proportion of Prime users engaging with Prime Video all fell significantly in the first quarter of 2024. Subscriber advocacy, as measured by Net Promoter Score, was the lowest it’s been in over 3 years. The subscriber churn rate as measured in January 2024 was the highest for Prime Video measured by the Kantar study since it began in 2020.

Despite other high profile streamers introducing ad-tiers, Prime Video is the only major service whose subscribers display an active net dissatisfaction with the number of ads being served.

One positive was that Reacher made it as the second most enjoyed show over the quarter with the much talked about Saltburn coming in at number 8.

Disney+ took 2nd spot in share of new subscriptions with historical drama, Shogun, performing strongly.

Netflix remains the go-to destination for inspiration on what to watch next, as 52% of all British SVoD subscribers search Netflix first for new content.

19.9m British households have at least one paid video streaming service in their household, virtually flat vs. the previous quarter (Q4’23).