A new battle in the streaming wars: becoming the “default” TV source

Consumers now use an average of 7.4 sources to satisfy their viewing needs, according to Hub Entertainment Research’s “2022 Best Bundle” study. With so much stacking, Hub notes that it is important to know which platform consumers consider their “default” TV source – the first thing they turn on when they want to watch TV.

For Netflix, for example, the first half of 2022 was rough, with subscriber losses in both Q1 and Q2. But at the same time, they maintained a strong position as the “default” source of TV for many viewers. In Hub’s annual “Decoding the Default” study, about a quarter of viewers say Netflix was the first thing they turn on when they want to watch TV – almost as many as default to live TV, and more than the next four biggest SVOD platforms combined.

According to Hub, being the “default” is so important because, as new subscriber growth slows, keeping existing users becomes a top priority. For streamers, establishing a platform as a TV home base is perhaps the most effective way to mitigate churn. In the same study, Hub asked respondents which of their subscriptions they would keep if they could only have one. Viewers who said a particular platform was their “default” source were 2-8x more likely to keep it than users of that platform in general.

“With continuous subscriber growth no longer a given, keeping as many existing users as possible becomes even more important. Platforms that viewers consider their ‘first stop’ for TV are much less susceptible to churn, and becoming the default choice for existing subs require different strategic choices – cadence of new releases, brand identity, etc. – than acquiring brand new users,”  commented Jon Giegengack, Principal and Founder of Hub.