- Netflix is likelier than rivals to win back subscribers after they cancel.
- 61% of canceled subscribers returned to the streaming service within a year, per Antenna data.
- Netflix also has an unrivaled churn rate within the industry.
For Netflix, a canceled subscription doesn’t necessarily spell disaster. In fact, the service will probably get the subscriber back — and quickly.
Within six months of canceling, 50% of subscribers have re-joined the streamer, according to new data from the analytics company Antenna, provided to Business Insider. And within a year, 61% of former Netflix subscribers are back on the platform.
That means Netflix’s ‘”win-back curve” is steeper than the weighted average of its competitors.
All told, Antenna — which analyzed nine streaming services, including Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu, Max, and more — found that 34% of US subscribers who canceled a service in 2023 returned to that same service within six months. Forty-five percent returned within a year.
Antenna measured win-back data for its annual State of Subscriptions report by looking at US cancellations initiated in 2023, excluding free tiers. The company sources data from millions of permission-based transaction records, which it then weighs to correct for demographics.
Netflix declined to comment.
In addition to winning back subscribers, the streamer also bests its rivals when it comes to another key data point: churn rate, or the monthly rate of people who cancel a subscription.
Antenna has consistently pegged Netflix’s monthly churn rate at 2%, far less than the weighted average of competitors.
Netflix added a record number of subscribers last quarter — the last time it’ll be breaking out those figures — when it also pushed through another price increase.
Even if that price increase causes some subscribers to cancel, this data suggests there’s a good chance they’ll come crawling back.
