Streaming services are the go-to for many when it comes to watching their favorite shows, but as the cost of living continues to rise, one in three Canadians has canceled at least one subscription in the past six months, according to a new study. found.

And, more than half or 53 percent canceled their subscription to save extra money, according to the survey of a sample of 1,618 adults by the Angus Reid Institute.

Additionally, younger Canadians and those from lower-income households were found to be more likely to reduce the number of streaming services they pay for.

Aside from those who stopped services to help cut costs, one in five ended subscriptions with one or more platforms because they said they had too many, according to the study released Thursday.

The cancellations follow some streaming services looking to raise prices, while introducing ads to their platforms.

Earlier this month, Netflix announced that it would launch a new ad-supported streaming tier in Canada for $5.99 per month starting in early November.

That means subscribers who pay less than the ad-free plans, which range from $9.99 to $20.99, will also have to watch four to five ads per hour.

Netflix now has a total of 223.1 million subscribers worldwide.

In the United States, several Netflix competitors have already launched ad-supported tiers that trade occasional commercial breaks for a lower subscription price.

HBO Max, Peacock and Paramount Plus are among the companies that have the option in the US, while Disney Plus has announced plans to start offering its own version in the coming months.

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Rising interest rates

However, despite the wave of cancellations, more than four in five Canadians subscribe to at least one streaming service and a majority subscribe to more than one, including two in five who subscribe to three or more. , according to the study. .

Content from streaming platforms also appears to have played a role for a significant number of Canadians when it came to unplugging subscriptions.

A total of 24% canceled because they said there was nothing to watch on the service; 15% left because a show they watched was taken off the catalog and 39% said goodbye because they weren’t using the service.

Nearly one in 10 cut a streaming subscription because they felt the content was the same across platforms.

Besides streaming services, the study also found a continued decline in cable usage.

For the first time in 2010, pay TV saw a decline in subscribers as services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus and Crave burst onto the market.

And this trend is still booming. While three in five Canadian households said they currently subscribe to cable or satellite, the number has steadily declined, as nearly nine in 10 said the same ten years ago.

Of those who canceled, a third said the movies and shows they were watching were already offered online by streaming services and a quarter said there was nothing on TV they wanted to look at. Half also said they weren’t getting good value for money.

However, more than two in five continue to hold their cable subscription because they say the programming they prefer is only available through a traditional television subscription.

The Angus Reid Institute conducted an online survey from October 11-13, 2022 with a representative random sample of 1,618 adult Canadian members of Angus ReidForum. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would have a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding. The survey was self-commissioned and paid for by ARI.

— with files from Reuters and The Canadian Press

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.