US subscribers cancel over price rises, Bango finds

Bango has published new US consumer research on subscription cancellations, finding that 22% of Americans cancelled a subscription after a price rise in the past year.

The study of 2,500 US adults also found that 40% wanted to keep a subscription but cancelled because they could not pause it or switch to a free option. Among Gen Z consumers, that rose to 50%.

The findings point to a gap between consumer demand and the options many subscription services offer. While 52% of respondents said their subscriptions are still worth the money, many also reported changing plans or dropping services as household budgets came under pressure.

Some 61% said they would be more likely to keep subscriptions if they were offered in cheaper bundles. In the past year, 17% moved to a cheaper plan, 12% switched to a lower-cost ad-supported plan, and 14% combined separate subscriptions into a bundle to cut spending.

That shift was more pronounced among younger consumers. Among Gen Z, 21% said they had combined separate subscriptions into a bundle to save money, suggesting they are more willing to trade flexibility and packaging for lower monthly bills.

Value pressure

Perceptions of value have weakened over the past year, the survey found. Some 45% of Americans said their paid subscriptions now offer worse value than a year ago, while 49% said they are paying extra for features previously included in streaming packages, such as ad-free viewing, downloads or 4K quality.

The research also showed that customers are making different trade-offs depending on what matters most to them. Although 70% said paid subscriptions should be ad-free and 72% said a subscription that starts ad-free should remain that way, 58% said they would accept advertising in exchange for a discount.

Those preferences are reflected in recent consumer behaviour. While 12% said they moved to a cheaper ad-supported tier over the past year, 8% said they upgraded to a premium tier to remove adverts. Among Gen Z, that rose to 14%.

Free alternatives

Free services are also playing a larger role in how consumers manage entertainment spending. More than half of respondents, 55%, said free services now meet some needs that paid subscriptions previously fulfilled, and 16% said they had cancelled a subscription in favour of a free alternative during the past year.

The data indicates that cancellation does not always mean a permanent loss for subscription providers. The research found that 12% of Americans cancelled a subscription they intend to return to, rising to 15% among Millennials.

That suggests some customers are not rejecting services outright, but stepping away temporarily when costs rise or when they cannot adjust their plans to fit changing budgets. Options such as pauses, lower tiers or limited free access could affect whether those users return.

For companies selling subscriptions directly, and for distributors such as telecoms operators and banks that package them into broader offers, the results underline the commercial value of retaining the customer relationship even when a user stops paying for a full plan.

The survey was commissioned by Bango and conducted by research company 3Gem.

"Flexibility is more important than ever for retaining subscribers: 40% had to cancel a subscription they wanted to keep because they couldn't pause it or move to a free option. That's a valuable relationship worth preserving. Giving subscribers that flexibility they're looking for could help them stay connected to a service they still want. People value different things in a subscription. For one customer, that might mean bringing their favourite services together through their mobile provider. For another, it could mean choosing a premium ad-free plan, switching tiers or keeping a free membership between paid subscriptions. Content brings people to a service. Subscription providers, telcos and banks can work together to sustain that relationship by giving customers more control over how they subscribe as their circumstances change," said Giles Tongue, Vice President of Marketing at Bango.