Welcome back to Subscriptions Weekly! This week, we look back at the Q1 and Q2 results for leading media subscription brands–the results are surprising. We also check on X Blue, former Twitter Blue’s, new feature to hide checkmarks. 

Warner Bros. Discovery loses 1.8M subscribers amid Max rebrand

Warner Bros. Discovery reported its Q2 earnings results, revealing that it now has 95.8 million users–compared to 97.6 million in Q1–across HBO, Discovery+, and its new combined streaming service Max. The loss in subscribers is likely due to customers with overlapping accounts (Max and Discovery+) getting rid of extra subscriptions. Learn more on TechCrunch.

UK traditional TV viewing sees record decline

According to Ofcom, traditional TV viewing in the UK is down from 83% in 2021 to 79% in 2022. Older viewers may be taking up streaming services alongside broadcast TV. The proportion of online over-64s using Disney+ increased from 7% in early 2022 to 12% in early 2023, although the figures for Netflix (43%) and Amazon Prime Video (37%) were stable compared with 2022. Read more on BBC.

“Generational viewership is changing,” notes Oscar Wall, Recurly EMEA General Manager. “Younger generations are switching to consume shorter form content, however surprisingly, ratings have shown that older generations have also reduced their viewing. Recurly’s recent consumer survey found that over 80% of Boomers are encouraged to sign up to a subscription if a free trial and loyalty incentives are offered.”

Understanding the ever-evolving consumer preferences is vital to deliver the value and convenience they expect. Learn what promotions and features subscribers seek, and get actionable insights to convert and retain more subscribers across all generations.

The New York Times flourishes on subscriber growth

The New York Times concluded Q1 with 9.73 million paid subscribers across its print and digital products. The company's focus on diversifying revenue streams, optimizing costs, and streamlining operations has been key to its thriving performance. To bolster revenues further, The NYT is actively promoting a more strategic bundled subscription offering. Read more on Yahoo!

X, formerly Twitter, now lets paid users hide their checkmarks

Social media company X now lets paid users hide their verification checkmarks–supposedly to help users benefit from subscription features without showing that they are a verified account. There was a lot of uproar about paid verification as it was hard to distinguish between legacy-verified accounts of notable people and users who had paid for the checkmark. Learn more on TechCrunch.

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From the Recurly blog

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