Known Franchises Serve as “Subscription Stabilizers”

According to new analysis of light-viewer behavior across Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and HBO Max in the U.S. and Europe, Digital i reports that “low-friction” content, including known franchises, serves as a subscription stabilizer for infrequent viewers at high risk of churn.

Light viewers are those who use streaming services infrequently and with low intent. They are the most at-risk segment for churn. Digital i defines them as the bottom third of measured accounts as ranked by total viewing time. They spend 48 minutes per day or less on Netflix, 18 mins per day or less on HBO Max, 12 minutes per day or less on Prime Video and 11 minutes per day or less on Disney+.

In addition to known franchises, “low-friction” content includes family and animated titles and major movie releases.

On Disney+, titles such as Hocus Pocus 2, Hamilton and Deadpool & Wolverine ranked among the strongest performers with light viewers last year.

A similar trend appeared on Prime Video, where Wicked: Part I, Conclave, The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Last One Laughing UK ranked highly among light viewers.

While bundling Prime Video with its Amazon Prime retail service provides its own churn reduction benefits, Digital i reported that familiar IP is still required to move passive subscribers into active, engaged viewers.

The reach vs. retention gap was most visible on HBO Max, Digital i said. While hits like The Last of Us reached a whopping 19.2 million accounts, only 21.4 percent of that audience were light viewers. In contrast, the animated film Flow reached a smaller audience of 3.9 million but captured a higher density of churn-risk users at 35 percent.

Live sports is proving to be a subscription driver, with Netflix’s NFL Christmas Gameday events attracting infrequent users at scale. They reached over 33 million accounts, of which 30 percent were light viewers. This spike provided a hand-off to returning franchise dramas like Wednesday (23.3 percent were light viewers) and Squid Game (23.1 percent were light viewers).

This indicates that live sports can act as a subscription driver, but light viewers must then also be captured by franchise content to prevent churn.

“The content that prevents churn is not always the content that dominates headlines or breaks overall reach records,” commented Digital i analyst Elena Mozzato. “Our 2025 analysis shows a clear ‘reach vs. retention’ gap. While critically acclaimed hits like The Last of Us draw massive audiences, it is the ‘low-friction’ titles—the familiar franchises and theatrical blockbusters—that disproportionately capture light viewers. These titles act as subscription stabilizers; by reducing decision friction for infrequent users, they provide a consistent reason to stay subscribed between major prestige releases.”