Planning to Save Money in 2013? You Might Want to Ditch the Subscriptions…

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Jan 14, 2013, 10:18 ET

LONDON, January 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

77% of subscribers wasting money every month
Average Brit wastes £14 per month on unused subs and memberships
Saving money second only to losing weight as most popular New Year's Resolution

Three quarters of us are wasting money on unused subscription services every month, a study has found.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130114/588593 )

The survey of 2,000 Brits by movie and TV service blinkbox found that 77% are wasting money on subscriptions, with the average Brit spending £14 each month on unused services.

Astonishingly, 15% hadn't cancelled subscriptions because they 'couldn't be bothered', 13% because they didn't know if they were using the services enough to get value for money and a further 13% hadn't cancelled because they had forgotten to cancel services they had signed up for.

Despite this, money is obviously on our minds, with 60% resolving to save more this year. The resolution was second only to the ambition to lose weight, which 61% of the Brits claim they are determined to do in 2013.

Memberships and subscriptions are currently taken up by 53% of the country and are especially popular with younger consumers - more than 60% of people between 18 and 34 subscribe to at least one service.

But does a subscription actually represent good value for money? On the surface, it looks like a no-brainer, with 75% of subscribers claiming to feel confident they are saving money by taking them out. However, for many subscriptions may not offer the financial relief they were expecting.

With 40% subscribing to movie and TV services* where much of the content has been available to stream and download elsewhere earlier and 30% watching less than two movies a month, respondents were asked what it might take to get them to ditch their subs.

An extraordinary 82% of movie and TV service subscribers would consider a pay as you go service if it meant they could access more of the latest movies and TV.

Ben Ayers from blinkbox comments: "If you're about to take out a subscription service in the hope that it'll help save you money in 2013, you might fail to keep to your resolution. Ditch the subscription, pay for what you want when you want it and make 2013 the year you bucked the trend."

Ends

*LoveFilm, Netflix, Now TV, Sky Movies were the services cited in survey question which asked: "Do you subscribe to any of these services?"

Notes to editors

blinkbox commissioned OnePoll to conduct the nationwide research amongst 2000 UK adults between 19 December - 24 December 2012.

About blinkbox

blinkbox has the latest TV and blockbuster movies and TV to watch instantly without subscription. The service is available on a growing number of games consoles, tablets, Smart TVs and PCs/Macs, thousands of quality film and TV titles. blinkbox is proud to be part of Tesco and was voted 'Best online movie service' by viewers of Channel 5's The Gadget Show.

Stats in full:

Percentage of people hoping to lose weight as a New Year's resolution: 61.22%
Percentage of people hoping to save money as a New Year's resolution: 60.8%
Percentage of people hoping to lose weight, broken down by gender: 67.12% (women), 51.50% (men)
Percentage of females hoping to keep New Year's resolutions by using a subscription service: 49.32%
Percentage of people currently using subscription services: 53.35%
Percentage of people between the age of 18 and 34 using subscription services: 62%
Percentage of people who feel confident they are getting value for money from subscription services: 74.22%
Percentage of people who have subscriptions they feel they are not using fully: 53.89%
Average number of unused subscriptions per person: 1.17
Percentage of people who feel they are wasting between 1 and 20 pounds on subscription services: 77.18%
Average amount of money wasted on subscriptions per person per month: £13.84
Percentage of subscribers who admit to laziness in cancelling subscriptions: 15.03%
Percentage of subscribers unaware that their subscription is not being fully used: 13.13%
Percentage of people who have forgotten about the service: 12.56%
Percentage of subscribers who have media subscriptions (music, cinema, movie streaming, etc): 40.21%
Percentage of subscribers who would consider cancelling their subscription for a more up-to-date PAYG service: 81.62%
Percentage of subscribers who only stream between 1 and 3 movies per month: 29.8%
Percentage of people who fail to make their New Year's resolutions last beyond six months: 88.49%