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What a streaming-heavy household actually spends, with industry sources

Industry-survey data on streaming spend across providers, paired with the behavioral economics that explains why cancellation lags consumption.

5 min read·

A reminder up front: the cost figures below come from industry surveys, not peer-reviewed research.

Deloitte's annual Digital Media Trends report and Parks Associates' subscription tracking are the two most widely cited sources for North American streaming spend. Both have consistently shown that the average household with three or more streaming services spends a meaningful share of discretionary income on them and that this share has grown.

Deloitte: "U.S. consumers on average pay for four streaming video services, and the average monthly spend on streaming continues to rise even as households juggle additional subscription costs." — Deloitte. (2023). Digital Media Trends: Immersed and Connected.

The behavioral reason streaming spend tends to creep upward — even when surveyed consumers say they want to cut back — is the payment-friction mechanism Soman identified.

Soman: "Past payments strongly reduce purchase intention when the payment mechanism requires the consumer to write down the amount paid (rehearsal) and when the consumer's wealth is depleted immediately rather than with a delay (immediacy)." — Soman, D. (2001). Journal of Consumer Research, 27(4), 460–474.

Auto-billing minimizes both Soman mechanisms. Combined with the high catalog count that triggers choice overload (Iyengar & Lepper, 2000, JPSP), the result is the documented pattern: many subscribers, many services, low per-service utilization, infrequent cancellation.

The rotation pattern that some cost-conscious households adopt — subscribing for a specific show window and cancelling afterward — works because it reintroduces an explicit decision point. The decision is what activates the spending awareness auto-billing erases.

References

  • Deloitte. (2023). Digital Media Trends.
  • Soman, D. (2001). J. Consum. Res., 27(4), 460–474.
  • Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. R. (2000). J. Pers. Soc. Psychol., 79(6), 995–1006.

Related: Streaming price increases · Streaming vs cable · Ad-tier worth it · Bundles

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