As noted by Yahoo! Finance, according to UBS Evidence Lab‘s fourth annual video streaming survey, which polled 1,200 Americans on their video viewing habits, Apple TV+ is falling behind relative to competitors and “appears to have flat-lined.”
“Just ~22% [of] iPhone owners subscribed to AppleTV+, essentially the same as the Jan 2020 data prior to Covid,” UBS analyst David Vogt wrote in a new note published on Tuesday. “While the adoption of Apple TV+ reached 26% in the Jan 2021 survey as customers consumed more media at home, adoption has backslid over the past several years.”
Vogt noted the negative trend was not unique to Apple TV+ with competitors like Netflix (NFLX), Amazon Prime Video (AMZN), and Hulu (DIS) also seeing iPhone penetration levels dip since 2020, when pandemic restrictions ballooned the value of streaming companies across the board.
While the trend was largely flat to negative for most services, HBO Max adoption among iPhone users increased to 35% in UBS’ latest survey, up from the 19% seen in January 2021. HBO Max has leaned on popular original series to help boost subscriptions over the past year, including “The Last of Us,” “The White Lotus,” and “House of the Dragon.”
Yahoo! Finance notes that, despite an overall pullback in adoption rates, survey respondents branded Apple TV+ as the weakest link, citing other platforms as a better value due to its overall lack of programming.
“Just 5% of respondents cited AppleTV+ as the ‘best value for the money’ service, likely given the narrow focus on original content,” Vogt wrote.
Netflix scored the highest, with 27% of respondents citing it as the “best value for money,” topping both Amazon Prime Video and Hulu at 12%.
UBS Evidence Lab is “a sell-side team of experts that work across 55+ specialized areas creating insight-ready datasets.“
