Key Points
- More than one-third of new U.S. streaming sign-ups occurred during the 2024–25 holiday shopping period, driven by deep promotional discounts.
- Ampere found most holiday-acquired subscribers churn quickly, with only three of eight major streamers retaining customers long term.
- Longer promotions and higher-value offers, rather than short-term discounts, were linked to stronger retention and lower churn.
Streaming services see a significant uptick in new account activations when they offer a promotional rate during the key holiday shopping season, but those customers are not likely to stick around for much longer than the duration of their promotion, according to new research from Ampere Analysis.
The report released on Monday is based on retail-related signals collected last year, which revealed more than one-third of new streaming video sign-ups occurred during the key retail shopping period between November 2024 and January of this year.
That correlates with holiday discounts offered by streaming services and third-party marketplaces like The Roku Channel and Amazon’s Prime Video Channels, which have been known to lower the monthly price of streaming services like Starz, Paramount Plus with Showtime and MGM Plus to as little as 99 cents per month.
Other services, including the Walt Disney Company’s Hulu, Comcast’s Peacock and Warner Bros Discovery’s (WBD) HBO Max, offer similar discounts when customers activate a streaming subscription during Black Friday, Cyber Monday or other parts of the holiday shopping period through direct purchases, rather than a marketplace.
Eight of the 10 largest streaming platforms launched holiday promotions during Black Friday last year, Ampere said, a sign that the streaming ecosystem has embraced discount pricing as a way to lure new subscribers.
While deep discounts may lure new customers, that often isn’t enough to keep them: Of the eight streamers that ran Black Friday promotions, only three reported durable customer relationships over the long-term, Ampere said.
The structure and duration of promotional offers proved to be more influential than the presence of discounts alone. Higher-value savings were linked to stronger long-term engagement, while promotions extending beyond six months were consistently associated with lower churn rates, the research found.
One reason why customers churn out: Price sensitivity. While Black Friday may offer significant discounts on streaming services, that promotional pricing may last for as little as one month. Once the normal rates kick in, customer start examining a service through a more-critical lens — and, if an app doesn’t offer the shows and movies they want to watch, they’re more likely to cancel.
“The festive period continues to stand out as a critical moment for U.S. streamers, but while promotional activity plays an important role, analysis shows that winning — and keeping — festive consumers requires a broader, more considered strategy,” Olivia Deane, a Research Manager at Ampere Analysis, said in a statement on Monday. “Platforms that combine well-structured seasonal offers with strong content and clear ongoing value are best placed to turn festive acquisition into long-term retention.”
When it comes to the services with the lowest rate of retention, the apps sold through Amazon’s Prime Video Channels are the ones that lose out. Those also tend to be the ones that see the sharpest discounts, according to prior pricing reviewed by The Desk, which has an affiliate relationship with Amazon and tracks the cost of its Prime Video Channels apps during key retail sales periods.
Disney Plus and Hulu tend to be the stickest with consumers, possibly on account of its multi-month promotional period and deep catalog of shows and movies from Disney and associated brands like 21st Century, FX and National Geographic. Comcast’s Peacock is also in the mix, with the streaming platform offering one full year of service for $20 in 2024 — a promotion that wasn’t repeated this year, on account of Peacock’s inclusion in Walmart Plus and its new bundled offering with the Apple TV streaming service.
