[imagesource: Thiago Prudêncio/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images]

There was a time, way back in the mid to late 1990s, when having DStv was kind of a big deal.

Once you’d gone through the schlep of having the dish installed, you were also likely to remain a paying customer for quite some time, but times have changed.

You can access DStv Now online and skip all of that dish hassle, and a number of other streaming services have entered the game, with Netflix leading the charge.

It’s no surprise that over the past year, with billions around the world confined to their homes, the streaming giant’s subscriber numbers have soared past the 200 million mark, and later today Netflix will release its first quarter (Q1) numbers.

As Fortune points out, there are a number of challenges to that continued growth:

…a new report raises questions about whether there’s a shakeout underway in video streaming and how Netflix may be impacted. Consumers, the report says, are dropping their subscriptions from video streaming services at a record rate…

Kevin Westcott, Deloitte’s vice chairman and U.S. tech, media, and telecom leader, told Fortune that streaming services are seeing significant churn, meaning cancellation rates are up…

“These are the highest rates we’ve seen in the history of our survey,” Westcott said. “As fast as people are signing up to try new services, they’re deleting them once the trial period ends.”

We’ve all done it.

Score that free 30-day trial (or buy an iPhone and get a year of Apple TV+), and then cancel before you roll over into paid territory.

That’s not to mention password sharing, which Netflix is in the process of cracking down on.

Whilst Netflix was first out of the streaming blocks, it took 10 years to crack the 100 million mark. Amazon Prime Video already counts a subset of its more than 200 million Prime members as subscribers, and Disney+ reached 100 million subscribers in just 16 months.

Then there are also the likes of Hulu, HBO Max, NBC’s Peacock, Paramount+, Discovery+, and others eating away at market share.

In order to survive and thrive, Netflix needs to ensure that it’s not only gaining new subscribers, but also retaining them:

If a streaming service pays $200 to acquire a subscriber, and the cost of a subscription ranges from $5 to $15 a month, then platforms lose money unless subscribers stay for a period of time.

“Up until now, all of the attention has been on subscriber acquisition. But in the next one to two years, the focus will shift to customer retention,” Westcott told Fortune.

One of the great pleasures of watching a streaming service, aside from the fact that your favourite show automatically ticks over to the next episode, forcing you to procrastinate further, is the lack of adverts.

No Cruz Vodka, no OUTsurance (things have quiet on the Katlego Maboe front, hey?), and no “Hi, I’m Michael de Broglio” – it’s the small things.

However, streaming services may soon introduce tiered subscription levels, the cheaper of which do have ads:

Westcott believes the platforms will continue to move toward a windowed, ad-tiered model. In this schema, subscribers can choose to pay extra to watch exclusive content the day it drops, watch later for a discount, or watch free with ads..

“Sixty percent of those surveyed said they were willing to watch up to six minutes of ads per hour in exchange for reduced cost, as long as the ads were relevant and not repetitive.”

I’m quite happy to pay what I pay to enjoy Netflix without ads, but I guess the company has to finance the production of original content somehow.

Except for Thunder Force – whoever gave that giant steaming pile the green light needs to be punished and should be ashamed of themselves.

[source:fortune]