Mike Peterson
Amid a boom in U.S. households trialing streaming subscriptions, Apple's own Apple TV+ streaming service made up 27% of new customers, a study claims.
More than two in five broadband households in the U.S. have signed up for a trial to an OTT (over-the-top) service, such as Apple TV+, during the coronavirus crisis. At least 8% of those households trialed four or more services, a new Park Associates study found.
As a result, many streaming services are offering extended free trials to build up engagement, research director Steve Nason said.
"We are seeing a record number of consumers experiment with new OTT services as a result of the COVID-19 crisis and the shifts in strategy in the industry," Nason said.
Among new subscribers during COVID-19 lockdowns, 49% of them subscribed to Disney+ and 27% signed up for Apple TV+.
A key question for those services is whether or not they'll be able to keep those subscribers. Park Associates also found that the churn rate — or number of customers cancelling subscriptions — increased from 35% in Q1 2019 to 41% in Q1 2020.
Roughly seven in ten customers that Park Associates surveyed have subscribed to a digital streaming service that they trialed, Nason added.
Apple's services business is likely to be a key driver of the company's growth over the next few years and the company is reportedly taking steps to hook subscribers on its other platforms, such as Apple Arcade.
Andrew O'Hara
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4 Comments
I find apple content to be very high quality but I may struggle to justify paying the monthly fee once my free year subscription ends that I got with my phone. That said, if every time I buy an iPhone I get a year subscription then there is real value there.
What I hope Apple doesn't do it just buy a ton of general content just to fatten out their offering, to turn it into another Amazon, Netflix, Hula etc. Cutting the cord with cable subscribers has been refreshing but now we have multiple movie channels and it feels just as segregated. At times there is so much content and choice, that I am left unable to make decision what to watch. It staggers me how so much content can get the viewers but clearly it must be doing.
Well, so much for the "Apple TV+ is a flop" crowd ...
That said, the real test comes with paid subscribers, but I do think they are almost to that point now with content (I'm including announced but not yet premiered content, like the new Tom Hanks movie -- which will draw viewers). I would hope that Apple would re-offer the free-year (or at least some portion thereof) with any new Apple hardware purchase, but we'll have to wait a while to see if that happens.
Easy to sign up to free. Just ask Spotify.
At present my subscription will be ended just before I have to pay for it.