UK households push back as streaming services face rising costs and shifting value

A new EY study reveals increasing resistance among UK consumers to regular streaming fee hikes, driven by concerns over fairness, content value, and rising broadband costs, amid a competitive global market for subscriptions.

UK households are increasingly resistant to routine increases in streaming fees, with a majority expressing concern about rising costs and widespread perceptions that recent hikes have been unfair, according to EY’s latest Decoding the Digital Home study. The report, based on a survey of 2,000 UK consumers, finds growing consumer scrutiny of value for money as the sector matures. (According to the report by EY.) ^[2],^[3]

The study shows churn remains substantial: 34% of households that currently pay for streaming say they have cancelled or intend to cancel a service within the next 12 months. While saving money is still the leading motive for cancellations, other practical drivers are becoming more prominent, including services losing content they previously carried and subscribers defecting to rival platforms. Industry tracking from earlier surveys points to an upward trend in cost-driven switching and consideration of lower-cost or ad-supported options. ^[2],^[3],^[4]

EY highlights a more transactional approach to subscriptions among consumers. Forty percent of respondents report following a “subscribe-watch-cancel-repeat” pattern, while 41% have resubscribed to services they previously left, suggesting churn increasingly coexists with reactivation as viewers chase specific titles or windows of sport. The report also finds 61% of respondents want easier ways to access content without repeatedly subscribing and cancelling. ^[2],^[3]

Pricing still matters most at the point of sign-up, but content value is rising in importance. Respondents place growing weight on access to particular shows or films, the breadth of a service’s library and originals or exclusives when choosing platforms. EY frames these UK findings within a global market that it estimates now has about 1.8 billion paid monthly subscriptions and which it forecasts will top 2 billion by 2029 as growth slows and competition intensifies. ^[2],^[3]

Live sport is emerging as a key battleground for streaming providers. Nearly half of UK respondents say they are willing to pay to watch sport on TV, up sharply from last year, and more than a third reported subscribing to a platform in the past year because it carried live sport. At the same time, almost half of consumers identify barriers to paid sports viewing, most commonly prohibitive cost, underscoring why rights packaging and pricing strategies are central to platform strategies. ^[2],^[3]

The EY research also flags expectations around technology and connectivity. A large majority want AI-generated material to be clearly labelled even as many would welcome AI tools that improve ad personalisation and content management. Separately, EY’s broader polling on the digital home shows parallel anxiety about broadband pricing and service transparency, with many households scrutinising provider value and customer experience amid rising bills. ^[2],^[5],^[6],^[7]

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Source: Noah Wire Services