Irish spend on video-streaming services up 33% in two years

A survey found on average, adults are paying for 2.4 video-streaming services, costing €28.26 per month.

The amount the population spends on video-streaming services each year has jumped by a third in just two years, prompting advice to cancel and renew subscriptions that are not being used all year round.

The nation is now spending €1.3bn on services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime per year, up from €967m in 2021.

That is according to a survey by Pure Telecom, which also found a number of consumers have started cancelling video-streaming subscriptions to cut back on costs. It said 38% of those who pay for streaming services have cancelled at least one subscription in the last year to reduce fees.

It also found that on average, adults in Ireland are paying for 2.4 video-streaming services each, costing them a total of €28.26 per month on subscriptions alone.

Darragh Cassidy of Bonkers.ie said many people are paying for up to four streaming services per month.

“There's absolutely no hope that anybody is going to actually watch half the content that they've signed up for," he said.

Darragh Cassidy of Bonkers.ie said 'there's absolutely no hope that anybody is going to actually watch half the content that they've signed up for'.

Mr Cassidy said none of these streaming platforms have sign-up fees, so to save money he recommends cancelling the subscription and signing up again if the consumer thinks they will not be watching it for a period of time. Viewing history and data are stored while the account is paused.

The survey also found that 26% of video streaming subscribers here share their passwords with someone outside of their household, meaning the streaming spend could increase as providers aim to clamp down on password sharing.

Mr Cassidy told Newstalk that Netflix has begun to put an end to consumers “freeloading” on other people’s passwords, imposing a €4.99 charge for those accessing an account under the same password.

He expects that will be copied by other streaming services over the coming months, leading to a further increase in streaming costs.

Mr Cassidy said initially Netflix held a “catalogue of movie distributors” before many other streaming platforms cropped up, including Disney+, which subsequently pulled its own material from the Netflix platform.

However, Mr Cassidy feels many are still turning to television for programmes that are not available on their chosen streaming platform, in a cost-effective way to avoid multiple sign-ups.

“I think when Netflix first came out, everyone thought it was going to be great. We could all get rid of our expensive cable package; we could all, you know, no longer have to sign up,” he said.

Among platforms raising the price of their subscription service is Spotify, which announced last month that it has increased the price of its single premium subscription allowing users to enjoy unlimited hours of ad-free music, by €1 to €10.99 a month.

In order to alleviate the financial burden of these fees, 28% of adults said they were willing to watch ads on their video-streaming channel if it resulted in free viewing.