The news: Streaming subscribers are increasingly canceling or pausing services after watching the content they signed up for, per a recent CivicScience study.

• Churn rates are on the rise. Thirty-two percent of streaming users have signed up for a streaming service to watch something and canceled/paused their subscription after watching three or more times in the last year, compared with 22% in 2023.
• 27% have canceled 1 to 2 times, down slightly from 28% in 2023—but only 41% say they have never done this, compared with 50% in 2023, showing that the behavior is generally on the rise.
• But some consumers are turning to alternatives to canceling outright: Paid streaming subscribers surveyed said they had moved to an ad-supported tier or subscribed to a bundled package.

Behind the trend: Streamers are canceling subscriptions or turning to more affordable alternatives as prices increase.

• Price hikes are increasing frustration and leading to tighter spending. The average cost for the cheapest ad-free plan across seven leading streaming services increased 77.8% between 2020 and 2025, per data from The Verge.
• Seven in 10 consumers report frustration with continual increases in subscription fees, per Deloitte, and about one-third have cut back on entertainment subscriptions due to financial constraints.
• Price is the top driver of churn for 36% of consumers planning to cancel, according to Simon Kucher.

Options like bundling and ad-supported tiers can help curb the churn trend. Hub Entertainment Research found that 42% of consumers were more likely to keep subscribing to a bundled service over a standalone subscription in 2025—but effectiveness depends, in part, on maintaining discounted pricing. If bundled prices rise, the ability to mitigate churn weakens.

Ad-supported tiers can help attract price-sensitive consumers: Four-fifths of US subscription OTT viewers have at least one ad-supported plan this year. But similar to bundles, ad-supported price hikes deemed unreasonable reduce the ability to lower churn rates.

Implications for marketers: Increases in consumer churn rates pose a risk to marketers who rely on premium streaming environments by making consistent reach more difficult on any single platform. That makes it critical for marketers to adapt by planning campaigns around high-demand content across platforms, like major season releases, to rely less on shifting subscriber bases.

Content adjacency increasingly matters more than channel strategy—marketers must remain agile in media planning to align with where viewers spread their time with streaming services.

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