50% of U.S. households subscribe to Netflix, according to new research by Leichtman Research Group (LRG). It combined the streaming service’s data with that of the U.S. Census Bureau to calculate the figure.
More Households ‘Have’ Netflix Than ‘Subscribe’
The note referenced previous research that found that 60% of U.S. adults have the service in thier household. The discrepancy between the two figures comes from the difference between “have” Netflix and “Subscribe” to it. The researchers explained:
This discrepancy is a result of the sharing of Netflix subscriptions, which is common among all streaming services.
They added that “with the aid of shared accounts, a whopping 81% of ages 18-34 have Netflix.” Apple appears to have accepted and embraced the idea of account sharing, regularly referring to families have a subscription to Apple TV+.
In total, 74% of U.S. households have a streaming video on demand (SVOD) service, the researchers said. By comparison, major pay-TV providers lost around 1,530,000 subscribers in the second of 2019, they noted.
I am in the half that do not have or useNetflix. I have considered it, but had no compelling need to do so. I do have an Apple TV and watch stuff there, there are a lot of very classic and or obscure movies on YouTube, and PBS has some good stuff. I will see how Apple+ turns out.
My wife borrows a sibling’s account (and occasionally helps pay for it). So I’m in the range of “have” but not “subscribe”. I’m happy to be there because there are too many streaming services for me to subscribe to them all. With Apple TV+ and Disney+ (and more Star Trek (Picard!) coming to CBS All Access making it tempting again) I have to think some more about what to pay for and what to cancel / share. I don’t want all of these services to add up to the equivalent to a cable TV subscription!
Which is an argument for not cutting the cord.