Max once led all major SVOD services in overall customer satisfaction, according to entertainment research company Whip Media's third annual "Streaming Satisfaction Report" survey, despite significant year-over-year slippage by the Warner Bros. Discovery platform.
According to a weighted (but fairly small) survey of 2,011 U.S. adults conducted July 7-16, Max scored an industry-leading 88% when evaluated on the quality of original content, variety of original content, and the perceived value of the service. That was down from a 94% score in 2022 and a 92% in 2021. (The survey can be downloaded here.)
Max's ranking comes after WBD stripped the platform of what it deemed to be unprofitable content.
Notably, Netflix has taken the biggest plunge in the three years Whip Media has been conducting this survey, finishing just behind the erstwhile HBO Max in 2021 with a 90%, but reduced to a back-of-the-pack 77% score in 2023.
Drilling down further, Whip found that Netflix ranked first in user experience, as well search and recommendation this year. But after raising the price to its core tier to $15.49 last year -- on the cusp of upping monthly prices again -- Netflix scored last in perceived value.
Conversely, Netflix also ranked as the most "indispensable" of the major U.S. SVOD services, with 27% of respondents identifying Netflix as the subscription streaming service they'd hold onto if they could only have one. But that was down from 41% in 2021.
Apple TV Plus has registered the biggest overall improvement in the three years of Whip's survey, rising from a 62% in 2021 to an 81% this year with respondents scoring the service higher these days for content selection.
NBCUniversal's Peacock has also been on the rise, climbing from 62% to 68% to 74%. Peacock's biggest leap has come in the area of "quality of originals," where its up 9% year over year.
