The news: Skydance, the company formed from the merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, will no longer report subscriber numbers on its DTC services, including Paramount+ and HBO Max, starting in Q4. The company will instead focus on KPIs like engagement and place “emphasis on the value of each customer relationship.”

The trend: Skydance’s decision follows similar moves from streaming competitor Netflix, which stopped reporting subscriber figures in Q1 2025. Other streaming players like Apple TV have never reported subscriber numbers.

But while Skydance claims its goal is to focus on the actual value of customer relationships beyond subscription numbers—something that could appeal to investors and obscure potentially slowing subscriber growth—the move poses significant challenges for marketers who are already navigating higher churn rates and streaming fragmentation.

• Among US video streaming subscribers, 32% said they had signed up for a service to watch something and then canceled or paused their subscription three or more times in the past year, up from 22% in 2023, per August CivicScience data.
• Rising prices are a major factor in churn: 36% of consumers planning to cancel a subscription cited price as their primary reason, according to Simon Kucher, and 7 in 10 consumers report frustration with increases in subscription fees, per 2025 Deloitte data.
• That could be a problem for Skydance, as a combined Paramount+ and HBO Max service will likely cost more than either individual subscription, even if it gives consumers access to more content in a single package.
• Marketers are simultaneously navigating mass fragmentation, where individual services are creating their own definitions of what constitutes engagement. YouTube now counts views as soon as a video begins playing even if the viewer watches for a fraction of a second, while Netflix is putting more emphasis on viewing hours and Paramount appears to be focusing on revenues per user.

Recommendations for marketers: Understanding the scale of streaming audiences will become more challenging in upcoming quarters. Marketers buying across Skydance’s and others’ DTC services will need to adjust how they assess audience size, engagement, and stability.

• Monitor the alternative engagement metrics Skydance offers. Subscriber data may be unavailable, but marketers can assess other indicators that Skydance offers, including average revenue per user and content viewership figures.
• Prioritize independent audience measurement. Working with third-party measurement providers can help verify campaign reach, frequency, and audience composition across Skydance’s streaming services to fill visibility gaps left by the absence of subscriber disclosures.

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