Digital Media Trends Our Love-Hate Relationship with Subscriptions

It’s abundantly clear that subscriptions are having a moment. According to the 14th Edition of Deloitte’s Digital Media Trends Survey, consumers currently subscribe to an average of 12 media and entertainment services, despite the free services widely available to them. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated subscription offerings, making them more accessible and desirable than ever before, during a time when 95% of consumers were stuck at home looking for easily accessible entertainment.

Sheltering in place meant more time for entertainment

Media consumption has been quick and constant ever since the pandemic started. As people continued to shelter in place, they were desperate for ways to entertain themselves and, unsurprisingly, the subscription market was quick to respond and provide solutions. Consumers began to acquire large quantities of paid streaming services across the video, music and gaming industries. Free time meant more time to watch, listen and play and time to sample new services thanks to the wide variety of content available. Even a year later, as people are out and about more often, they are still relatively attached to their streaming services and not likely to walk away from them completely -- the ability to watch and listen to content 24/7 is too great a draw. Despite the influx of new customers, however, streaming companies worry about keeping their existing customers due to the accessibility of free live streaming options. 

Subscriptions are here to stay

As movie theaters and live venues begin to open, one might wonder whether people will ever come back. Can home-based entertainment options actually coexist with outside venues? While no one knows exactly how current behaviors will evolve post-pandemic, it seems unlikely that streaming subscriptions will go away completely, yet there is the possibility that consumers are going to become intolerant of having to subscribe to a new service every time a great new movie or TV show enters the market.

Trends by age

In terms of age groups, Millennials have purchased the most entertainment subscriptions (17), followed by Generation Z (14) and Generation X (13) and a large percentage intend to subscribe to even more services over the next year. Yet despite their high engagement, 24% of consumers are overwhelmed by the number of subscription products they own and 28% plan to cut back. This is especially true of Millennials, as the percentage wanting to cut back jumps to nearly half (43%). While the number of consumers who have added subscriptions since the pandemic began still exceeds the number who have canceled, their desire to scale back exists nonetheless. While it can be stressful for people to identify where to cut and even harder to go through the process of actually doing it, ApexEdge is here to help your clients manage their subscriptions, so you can pass along this added-value to them.

How ApexEdge can help manage subscriptions 

Even before the pandemic, ApexEdge has always known that the subscription economy has been burying customers with monthly bills for often unused and sometimes unwanted auto-renewing memberships. Integrating subscription cancellations into your native user journey will empower your customers to easily get rid of these unwanted charges in just one or two clicks. It benefits customers because they get to avoid the hassles of figuring out who to call, being placed on endless holds and being subjected to aggressive retention efforts. ApexEdge will cancel the subscriptions for them and even obtain refunds in many cases. Your customers will save time and money and you will benefit by building loyalty and revenue. 

Subscribe to unsubscribe. Contact ApexEdge to find out more.