Streaming is now Britain's most protected household expense

Twenty-six per cent of Britons refuse to cut their TV and streaming subscriptions even when household budgets tighten, making streaming the UK's most protected expense. That figure comes from credit card firm Zable, which surveyed 2,000 UK adults and paired the results with anonymised cardholder transaction data covering 2024 to 2025.

For operators and content platforms, the finding is straightforward. The subscription has moved from discretionary spend to essential spend in roughly two years of cost-of-living pressure. Consumers are cutting elsewhere first.

What are Britons cutting instead?

Nearly one in five respondents, 19.3 per cent, have reduced spending on cinema, theatre and concert tickets. The traditional night out is becoming an expense many households can no longer justify, according to the research, published on 10 November.

The regional pattern reinforces the point. Plymouth records the highest level of cutbacks in the country, with 24 per cent of respondents there spending less on cinema, theatre and concert trips.

The trade is deliberate. Households are protecting home entertainment while trimming outings that require travel, tickets and venues. Zable frames this as a reshuffling of budgets rather than simple austerity: consumers decide which expenses are worth keeping and where the axe falls.

Is paid streaming still growing?

Yes, and by a margin that surprised even the survey's authors. Zable's internal transaction data shows the share of cardholders paying for TV and entertainment subscriptions rose by 20.7 per cent between 2024 and 2025.

Disney+ outperformed the market. Its payer share climbed 60.4 per cent over the same period, meaning the platform grew roughly three times faster than the subscription category overall.

Put in practical terms, for every five cardholders Zable saw paying for entertainment subscriptions in 2024, six were paying in 2025. That growth occurred despite sustained pressure on household finances.

What does this change for the industry?

For telcos, the data supports continued investment in bundled content offers. If streaming is the last expense a household cancels, attaching it to a mobile or broadband plan strengthens retention on both products.

For streamers, the numbers signal pricing headroom. A subscriber base that protects the category even during belt-tightening can absorb modest price rises better than one treating the service as optional.

For venue operators and cinema chains, the picture is harder. Nearly a fifth of consumers have already pulled back, and the survey suggests the trend is structural rather than seasonal.

How reliable is the sample?

The survey covers 2,000 UK adults, a standard national panel size, and the transaction data spans Zable's own cardholder base from 2024 to 2025. The credit card firm's customer pool may skew toward particular demographics, so the Disney+ figure should be read as directional rather than a market-wide measurement.

The combination of stated preference and observed spending is the study's strength. People often misreport what they would cut; card data shows what they actually did.

What happens next?

The seasonal context matters. With colder evenings and the festive season approaching, Zable expects more households to weigh the cost of a night out against an evening at home — a comparison that increasingly favours the sofa, the broadband connection and the subscription queue.