Netflix and Amazon Prime Video lost a total of almost 800,000 UK subscribers between April and June, reports The Guardian.
A survey by the Broadcast Audience Research Board (BARB) reveals that Prime Video suffered the biggest losses, shedding 589,000 households, while Netflix was shunned by a further 206,000. Membership of Sky's Now streaming also fell by 43,000.
The latest round of plug-pulling is thought to be down to the UK's cost of living crisis, which has put the squeeze on family finances and seemingly led some to cut back on Better Call Saul in order to better afford rising energy bills.
"The numbers we report today show SVOD [subscription video-on-demand] services aren’t immune as households work hard to make ends meet," said Justin Sampson, chief executive of BARB. “We don’t ask households why they choose to add or drop subscriptions, although the sharp increase in energy prices in March/April must have been a catalyst."
The survey comes just a few months after Netflix saw subscriber figures dip for the first time in a decade. Although, to be fair, significant losses were incurred after the service pulled out of Russia (700,000 subscribers), while another 600,000 users left after the service bumped up its prices in the US and Canada.
It's also worth noting that demand for streaming services was already on the wane. Research firm Kantar previously reported that more than three million UK households had cancelled a streaming service subscription this year, up from 1.51 million in the first three months of the year.
It's not all doom and gloom, though. BARB says Disney Plus added an extra 91,000 households between April and June, taking its subscriber base to 6.62m, while Apple TV Plus, which currently offers users a 7-day free trial, put on 43,000, taking its base to 1.61m.
Despite recent losses, Netflix remains the most popular streaming giant with over 220 million subscribers globally, just ahead of Prime Video on over 175 million.
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