Hundreds of thousands of British households get rid of Amazon Prime ahead of price rise

Nearly 600,000 customers in the UK have cancelled their Amazon Prime subscription in the second quarter of 2022 as the company prepares for a price hike on its streaming service, the Telegraph reports.

From 1 April to 30 June, broadcasting regulator Ofcom learnt in a new study that 590,000 British households had ditched their subscriptions.

Amazon is planning to increase the subscription for Prime in September this year.

A one month's subscription will increase in the UK from £7.99 to £8.99, with an annual pass rising from £79 to £95.

Amazon said the price rise, which is the first since 2014, was party due to the rise in inflation, which is at a 40-year high.

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It was also learnt rival Netflix had braved a one percent decrease in subscribers, down by 210,000 year-on-year to 17.1 million between 1 April and 30 June 2022.

However, the same cannot be said for the newest streaming service in town, Disney+.

They added 1.8 million subscribers in the UK during the second quarter of 2022. That was an increase of 38 percent, making it the most popular streaming service with 6.6 million subscribers in the UK.

As for the industry as a whole, Ofcom's Media Nations study found the number of households in the UK subscribing to at least one streaming service had fallen by 350,000 to 19.2 million.

The regulator cites the ongoing cost of living crisis as a contributing factor to the increase of cancellations in streaming services.

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Ofcom said: "Cancellations do not necessarily represent customers that have been lost for good.

"Ofcom’s survey of subscribers who cancelled earlier this year found that almost three quarters of customers said they thought they would resubscribe – reflecting the flexibility that allows customers to pick up and drop subscriptions depending on changes in programmes, needs or circumstances." 

As a result of streaming services in recent years, Ofcom says 16-24 year olds are seven times less likely to watch broadcast TV than those aged 65+, who enjoy it for a third of the time they are awake.

The report also shared overall viewing of TV and video has declined from its pandemic peak as we were all stuck indoors.

However, it is not all doom and gloom for the TV companies. Ofcom says a 'resurgent' TV advertising market has 'helped commercial public service broadcasters achieve their highest revenues in five years in 2021'.