What’s Captifying the World: Netflix Leads Share of Search Amongst Competitors — But News of Password Fees and Content Cancellations Triggers a Drop In Positive Search Sentiment

A day after announcing it had lost subscribers for the first time in a decade, Netflix’s stock price took a major hit. The company lost more than $50 billion in value in a single day, potentially signaling that the Hollywood disruptor needed to take a good look at its ten years of unchecked growth. 

With new players emerging like Warner Bros. Discovery merging its many streaming apps into a single destination bundle and tech giants like Apple — building clout with its recent first-time Best Picture win by a streamer — spending upwards of $6 billion on streaming content, change is in the air.  

Captify took a look at some of the biggest consumer search trends across streaming in the recent quarter, as well as data stretching back into last year, to uncover how consumer search behavior has shifted.

Disney+ Might Reign in the Battle for Streaming Supremacy

Captify’s data saw year-over-year (’21 vs ’22) search consideration time for streaming has increased from 6 to 10 days, with consumers actively spending more time comparing different providers—from new offers and promotions to original content. This rise is potentially triggered by the growth of available offerings — such as Disney+, HBOMax, or Apple TV+ — coupled with cost-conscious consumers considering which services to consolidate as pandemic restrictions ease.

Additionally, through analyzing share of search across providers from 2021 into 2022, Captify’s data revealed:

• Disney+ dominated the streaming space in the first half of 2021 — commanding a 41% to 47% share of search, which is at least 10% higher than Netflix across each month.
• Disney+’s share of search is at least collectively double that of Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO, Apple TV+, Discovery+, Paramount+, and Peacock.
• October 2021 through April 2022 saw Netflix win back share of search back from Disney+; however, consumer search behavior indicates that Netflix’s bad habits may have finally caught up to it.

Netflix Was in Panic Mode, and Consumers Noticed

Captify saw that positive search sentiment for Netflix declined in Q4 of 2021 to the lowest point in 12 months. Although positive sentiment was back on the rise in early Q1 of 2022, Netflix again suffered a blow with its earnings call news — including subscriber numbers dropping, the cancelation of multiple series, and laying off staff in its marketing department and editorial operations.

Captify data found that this news signaled a fall in positive sentiment for the streaming giant, with year-over-year positive sentiment falling by 63%. This was also potentially triggered by Netflix’s new war on splitting accounts. Interestingly, audiences searching for SVOD services are seeking information around ‘password sharing’ 3.2-times more than the average consumer and around cancellations 2.9-times, signaling that Netflix’s plan to charge primary account holders an extra fee for shared accounts may be a dealbreaker for consumers looking to consolidate their subscriptions and save money amid the cost of living skyrocketing.

A New Era in the Streaming Marketplace?

As people consume more media, better options will present themselves as consumers have a consolidation mindset. We could be entering a new phase of the streaming era, and Captify will be here to continue to deliver real-time consumer insights to help our clients prepare.

Get in touch for more information about Captify’s Search-Powered Addressable TV (ATV) and Connected TV (CTV) products and to find out how to get started today. 

*Data sourced from Captify’s US network from 3/1/21 vs 4/26/22