Almost 800,000 of us in the UK have now cancelled our subscriptions to either Netflix or Amazon Prime Video - as the cost of living crisis continues to squeeze our cash.
Under-the-cosh viewers reluctantly axed their accounts in their droves between April and June, according to a survey by the Broadcast Audience Research Board (Barb).
It said the number of homes able to access at least one subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service plunged from 19.57m in the first quarter to 19.19m at the end of the second - a net decrease of 382,000.
This is very bad news for under-fire Netflix, which has already had tens of billions wiped off its market value after shedding 1.5 million customers this year – the first dip in sign-ups in a decade for the UK’s most popular paid-for streaming service.
Around 206,000 households canned their Netflix subscription between April and June, with the streamer's UK customer base dropping from 17.29m to 17.08m.
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The streaming giant splashes out around £14bn making and licensing shows every year, with more than £824m spent in the UK alone.
But it hasn't been a year entirely devoid of success for Netflix, which enjoyed huge success from hit shows such as the globe-conquering mega smash sci-fi TV series Stranger Things and films such as Ryan Gosling blockbuster The Gray Man.
Netflix has put its prices up twice in the past two years, with rival Amazon Prime Video set to hike its subscription fee next month.
The latter reported the steepest decrease among the most successful SVOD services in the UK.
Prime Video subscribers fell by 589,000 quarter-on-quarter from 13.35m to 12.76m.
Sky’s Now TV dropped from 43,000 homes, taking its subscriber base to 2.07m households at the end of the second quarter.
Justin Sampson, the chief executive of Barb, said: “The numbers we report today show SVOD services aren’t immune as households work hard to make ends meet.
“We don’t ask households why they choose to add or drop subscriptions, although the sharp increase in energy prices in March/April must have been a catalyst for people to review all their monthly outgoings.”
But bizarrely the economic doom and gloom doesn’t seem to have affected Disney Plus, which added added 91,000 homes in the second quarter, taking its UK customer base to 6.62m homes.
Likewise, Apple TV+ added 43,000 homes, taking its UK subscriber base to 1.61m.
Earlier this year, research from Kantar Worldpanel showed the number of UK homes with at least one paid-for streaming service had fallen by 215,000 in the first quarter, marking the end of a decade of largely uninterrupted growth.
Barb recorded a relatively small net drop of 100,000 households with access to subscription streaming services in the third quarter in 2021, and has only ever recorded one further drop in quarterly numbers since it began its quarterly Establishment Survey in 2014.
Sampson added: “our latest data confirm other sources which have reported declining subscription levels for SVOD services during the first half of 2022".
