As major streaming services work to control programming costs, a new study finds that streaming series are struggling with cancellation rates that are higher than broadcast TV.
“The Show Must Go Off," a new report from Luminate that takes a closer look at renewals and cancellations in a post-peak TV landscape, finds only 44% of streaming series were being renewed by the major SVODs.
In contrast broadcast networks’ renewal rates are now significantly higher than those of streaming services and cable channels, a reversal of the once-conventional wisdom that series would have an easier time surviving on streaming than on broadcast TV.
The networks renewed 65% of their output in 2025, Luminate reports.
New streaming hits are also in serious decline, with freshman series falling from half of U.S. scripted output on the major SVODs in 2022 to 42% in 2025. HBO Max was the only major service where freshman series increased as a share of total premieres in 2025, while only Apple TV and Prime Video increased their number of new shows.
That figure, however, excludes limited series.
The study also found that despite its reputation for aggressive cancellations, Netflix actually renewed the most shows among the major SVODs from 2022 to 2025, renewing about 50% of its U.S. slate on average.
Audience retention across a full season is the single strongest predictor of renewal or cancellation when it comes to streaming series. Shows have a much stronger chance of renewal if more than half of the viewers who start a season end up finishing it, with cancelled series in our dataset averaging 44% retention.
The Luminate streaming viewership data also indicated that SVOD shows with more than 50% audience retention between their season premiere and finale are usually renewed, but each service has a different benchmark for what they’ll accept; Apple TV appears to accept the lowest retention, particularly for prestige series like The Studio (28% over 120 days).
