--- title: Streaming services lose ~50% of subscribers after big releases - The Hustle description: Customers come for the buzzy release, then stay for the… well, they don’t stay. Which means studios must churn out the hits or pay for the classics. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/2019693294-News-Brief_2022-02-02T010126.025Z.webp --- # Streaming services lose ~50% of subscribers after big releases ![Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/Nav/Optimized/TheHustle_Icon_Dark.svg) [Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/juliet-bennett-rylah) [Juliet Bennett Rylah Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/JBRylah) Published: February 02, 2022 Updated: October 11, 2023 If you’ve ever ditched a streaming service right after binging that hot new show all your friends were talking about, you’re not alone. ![Streaming services lose ~50% of subscribers after big releases](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/2019693294-News-Brief_2022-02-02T010126.025Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=2019693294-News-Brief_2022-02-02T010126.025Z.webp) *The Wall Street Journal *[looked at data](https://www.wsj.com/articles/streaming-data-netflix-hbo-disney-hulu-11643560207) from subscriber measurement company Antenna. It showed big spikes in streaming sign-ups that coincided with buzzy releases, such as: - Musical *Hamilton*, Disney+ (July 2020) - DC flick *Wonder Woman 1984, *HBO Max (Christmas Day, 2020) - WWII drama *Greyhound, *Apple TV+ (July 2020) - The Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, Peacock But 6 months later, ~50% of those new subscribers were gone from Disney+, HBO Max, and Apple TV+. For Peacock, it only took 4 months. #### **So what’s a streamer to do?** There are a couple of things that help retain customers: - Regularly churning out new and popular shows and films - Owning a big collection of older content - Dropping episodic series that can’t be binged in a single weekend But these tactics don’t come cheap. Netflix said it dropped [$17B](https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/netflix-2021-content-spend-17-billion-1234955953/) on content in 2021. HBO Max intends to spend [$18B](https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/01/10/hbo-max-pledges-18-billion-spend-to-try-and-catch/) in 2022. NBCUniversal paid [$500m](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/14/nbcuniversals-peacock-says-two-seasons-of-the-office-will-be-free.html#:~:text=NBCUniversal%20is%20paying%20%24500%20million,Peacock%20has%2015%20million%20signups.) to put all 201 episodes of “The Office” on Peacock for 5 years. And then there’s Amazon, which Antenna didn’t include in its data because Prime Video comes with Amazon Prime. Amazon is counting on a sizable audience to justify the [$465m](https://www.indiewire.com/2021/05/amazon-justifies-lord-of-the-rings-series-budget-1234636906/) budget for the 1st season of its forthcoming *Lord of the Rings* adaptation — the most expensive season of TV ever. 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