"No More to Watch"... 'Binge-Watching' Encourages OTT Cancellations

Korea University Researchers Study OTT Users' Subscription Cancellation
Causes Include Binge-Watching and Negative Emotions Like Addiction

An analysis has emerged suggesting that so-called 'binge-watching' on online video services (OTT) can be a reason why users cancel their subscriptions.

On the 7th, the Journal of Korean Press and Information Studies introduced a paper titled "Why Do OTT Service Users Cancel Their Subscriptions?" by researchers Bomi Lee and Hyesoo Kim from the Media Department at Korea University.

The researchers analyzed in the paper that “users' binge-watching behavior depletes watchable content and lowers the necessity to continue the subscription.” Watching multiple episodes of a drama at once leads to consuming the available content faster, and users who have watched all the desired content no longer feel the need to pay subscription fees.

The researchers reached this conclusion through focus group interviews with residents aged 20 to 50 in Seoul and the metropolitan area who had canceled OTT subscriptions at least once.

The Netflix original series "The Glory," released in two parts [Image source: Provided by Netflix]

The researchers explained, “OTT providers’ strategy of not releasing content all at once is also aimed at preventing subscription cancellations.” A representative example is the drama The Glory, which recently gained attention on Netflix and was released in two parts with a time gap.

Meanwhile, users’ negative feelings toward OTT usage were also identified as another major reason for subscription cancellations. Some canceled subscriptions because they felt addicted to habitually watching content, while others subscribed lightly based on friends’ recommendations and later canceled.

Some interview participants viewed OTT content recommendation systems negatively. They explained that repeatedly receiving recommendations for similar genres led to boredom with the personalized service, increasing users’ subscription fatigue and resulting in cancellations. Participants also felt that although there are exclusive contents for each OTT service, the overall content was similar across platforms.

The researchers added, “It is a meaningful research result to have explored the correlation between users’ binge-watching behavior, a characteristic pattern of OTT services, and subscription cancellations, as well as to have discovered the connection between habitual use and addiction as motives for cancellation of OTT services.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.