48% Users Cancelled YouTube Premium Subscription Due to Lack of Quality Content

The online video platform — YouTube, has been around since 2005. Google acquired YouTube in 2006. In 2014, it hit a new milestone. YouTube launched ‘YouTube Premium’ also known as ‘YouTube Red’.

Is YouTube Premium Worth it?

This is YouTube’s take on an OTT service of its own. Like other OTT streaming services, it comes with its unique perks.

Much like Netflix and Amazon Prime, the YouTube Premium service comes with its original content. However, members with YouTube Premium subscriptions can download content to view offline, play videos in the background, and enjoy ad-free videos.

Earlier, Netflix got scrutinized for canceling their popular original series. Therefore lost a good number of subscribers. In line with that, Real Research launched a survey to see what measures Netflix should take to gain back their lost subscribers.

But what do we know about YouTube Premium service satisfaction? Let’s find out with these findings curated from our online survey application — Real Research.

Highlights

• The majority 75.34% have never heard of the YouTube Premium service.
• 60% said they haven’t used the service while 48.67% said they stopped using the service because they do not watch any content that the platform offers.
• 19% said that they started and continued using their YouTube subscription so they could avoid ads.

From a total of 250,000, the majority (75.34%) have heard of YouTube Premium services. Only 24.86% have not heard of the YouTube subscription plan.

Furthermore, an astounding 64.63% have never subscribed to YouTube Premium. While 25.91% had once been subscribed to the service but are not anymore. This leaves only 9.46% of the respondents who are currently members of the YouTube subscription service.

Respondents are Unimpressed With Original Content Choices

When asked why they had never subscribed to the service before the answers were as follows:

• 60% said they don’t watch content on the platform.

• The second-highest pick (28.74%) was that the YouTube Premium subscription price is too expensive.

• The third highest pick (12.89%) was that the subscription fee payment procedure is too complicated.

Other answers, all below 7% each, ranged from four different choices — ‘Not too bothered by advertisement videos’, ‘I do not use OTT streaming services at all’, ‘I subscribed to YouTube streaming services in the past, and ‘Others’.

On the other hand, the survey also asked the respondents what was the reason behind getting a YouTube subscription but later unsubscribing. The most resounding answer with 48.67% was ‘it turned out that I didn’t watch content on YouTube platform that much’. This pick was followed by ‘the price is too expensive’ with 24.20%.

Other answers ranged from ‘Subscription fee payment procedure is too complicated with 9.07%, ‘Others’ at 10.62%, and 3.75% for the fact that user satisfaction level was the same when comparing platform experience from a non-subscribing member to a subscribed member.

Viewers Would Like to See More Diverse Original Content

Next, Real Research asked what was the main reason behind subscribing and choosing to stay on the platform.

With 33.19% the highest pick was ‘I don’t have to watch advertisement videos.’ This is a reasonable response as a previous survey shows that 70% of the users on YouTube are bothered by constant YouTube video ads.

Following after is ‘I can also enjoy the YouTube Music service’ with 28.36%. 15.79% picked ‘I can play the video in the background while 4.71% said that they get a YouTube subscription ‘To watch YouTube Original Content’.

The option of downloading videos to watch them offline got the least picks with 1.33%. the rest either chose ‘Others’ or said that they do not use the YouTube subscription service.

Next, we asked the respondents what improvements they would like to see on their YouTube subscription.

33.08% chose ‘Lower price’, 28.54% chose ‘Easier subscription fee payment procedure’, 17.74% chose ‘More diverse YouTube Original Content’, and 8.38% chose ‘Allow Premium subscribers to watch movie content on YouTube for free.’

The latter option could be one of the biggest reasons that most users pass on subscribing to the service. Some already find it expensive and having to pay additionally to access movies on the platform seems unfair. Therefore, 4.77% said that they will never subscribe to the service.

52.40% are Unhappy With Additional Costs Despite Being a Subscribed Member

Let’s read what factor respondents find most displeasing when using YouTube subscription services.

To no surprise, the majority of 52.40% said they are most displeased with having to pay an additional cost to watch movies on YouTube despite already being subscribed to YouTube Premium. The second highest with 23.20% was that the subscription price is too expensive.

Other answers included a complicated fee payment process and insufficient services offered. Additionally, only 1.59% of the respondents are satisfied with their subscription to YouTube Premium.

To follow up, we asked how much they tend to spend on their YouTube subscription per month.

25.55% said less than $5, 18.59% said Less than $10, 16.86% said Less than $20, and 10.60% said over $20. The rest of the respondents, 28.40%, said that they did not subscribe to the service.

Does this mean the YouTube premium subscription price is expensive?

To get a clear picture of how much they are willing to pay for the YouTube Premium subscription price. Real Research asked what users feel should be the right cost for the service.

48.88% chose less than $5, 23.15% chose less than $10, 18.54% chose less than $20, and the minority chose over $20.

Overall, we gather that if respondents have heard of the service, they find it a bit too expensive. However, it seems the majority feel that less than $5 seems an appropriate amount for the YouTube Premium subscription fee. This is probably fair especially seeing as the service requires subscribers to make additional payments for certain content even after subscribing.

Only 12.51% Prefer YouTube Premium Over Other Platforms

Next, we asked the respondents what improvements they would like to see on their YouTube subscription. In a previous survey, we asked respondents, what OTT streaming services they use most? YouTube and Netflix were the top picks.

Hence, surprisingly, the 40.58% majority said ‘None’. 29.01% said ‘One’, 16.91% said ‘Two’, and 13.30% said ‘Three or more. This was an interesting finding as most members of society still haven’t fully embraced OTT streaming services. Perhaps these services need to offer lower prices and better offers to gain higher traction.

To follow up, we asked the respondents if they preferred other OTT streaming services when compared to YouTube Premium.

54.90% said ‘Yes’ leaving 45.10% preferring their YouTube subscription the better OTT streaming service compared to others.

For more clarity, we asked them what factor made them prefer other OTT streaming services to YouTube Premium.

The responses were as follows: 64.92% said other services were cheaper while 14.34% said that other services did not ask for extra payment to access additional content. 5.80% said other platforms had better content to offer and 2.23% said the payment process was simpler.

Final Thoughts

Finally, we asked the respondents if they want to continue their YouTube Premium subscription if YouTube did not improve their services.

By a close call, 54.02% said ‘Yes’ and 45.98% said ‘No’. It seems YouTube’s music service along with ad-free and play-in-the-background options are just enough to keep current subscribers interested.

However, this could always change, with more platforms offering more services and offers, one can never be too certain. Ultimately, most respondents said they do not watch YouTube content which could mean that the platform needs to focus on providing the most exciting content to catch subscriber interest.