As consumers mind their spending on nonessential goods and services, PYMNTS Intelligence finds that a significant share of the population believes that they spend liberally on streaming subscriptions.
For the September installment of the series “New Reality Check: The Paycheck-to-Paycheck Report,” created in collaboration with LendingClub, “The Nonessential Spending Deep Dive Edition,” PYMNTS Intelligence surveyed more than 3,400 U.S. consumers about their spending on nice-to-haves.
The results revealed that 25% of respondents reported that they spend indulgently on streaming service, with financially struggling consumers the most likely to say that their spending in the category has been indulgent.
Many streaming services have been raising their prices while trying to create a sense for consumer that they are getting enough bang for their buck.
Spotify, for its part, has been tinkering with its consumer prices, raising fees over the summer. On the company’s most recent earnings call in July, CEO Daniel Ek spoke to the company’s ongoing monitoring of how much value consumers get for their spending.
“We are trying to build more value toward our consumers. That’s where we start,” Ek said. “And then when we feel like that gap, the value to price ratio is getting out of whack, you should now assume that we have a new tool in our toolbox, which is we have the ability to raise prices and we feel good about doing that.”
Netflix, meanwhile, just raised its prices on its basic and premium plans.
“We look to wisely invest the money that members pay us, deliver back to them more amazing stories, more entertainment value. And then when we think we’re doing that, we’ll occasionally ask them to pay a bit more to keep that virtuous circle spinning, Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters said on a call with analysts Wednesday (Oct. 18).
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