• by Wayne Friedman , March 27, 2023

Streaming continues to be a business development marked by "volatility" -- with more cancellations as well as more additions, according to Antenna.

For example, in 2022, "cancellations" across premium subscription video-on-demand platforms grew 49% from the previous year, while “gross” additions climbed 18%.

In the last three months of 2022, there were 41.3 million gross additions versus 34.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2021.

At the same time, there were 33.8 million cancellations in the fourth quarter of 2022 versus 21.7 million subscribers who departed.

Antenna says that overall, there were 7.5 million “net” additions versus 13 million “net” additions in the year-ago period.

The biggest gainers in 2022 were Peacock (up 37%), Paramount+ (adding 23%), and HBO Max improving 15%), followed by Apple TV+ (12% higher), Discovery+ (7% more), Showtime (up 3%); Disney+ (adding 2%), and Starz (inching ahead by 1%).

Looking at overall share, industry leader Netflix is now at 25%, down 43% versus three years ago) -- while Hulu also dipped to 16% from 24% and Disney+ is virtually the same at 13% (slipping from 12%).

The more rapidly growing streamers over the last three years have benefitted from consumers who have chosen lower-cost monthly fees from cheaper ad-supported options.

Premium streamers' gross subscriber additions a year ago came from 32% who took on an ad-supported option (68% of additions were ad-free). This is up from 26% ad-supported additions in 2021 (74% were ad-free).