Will Subscription Fatigue Come to Autos?

Yes, this study is about TMT in the home, which, with the exception of those who literally live the RV lifestyle and reside in a Winnebago, is probably a structure on a foundation, not sets of wheels.

Be that as it may, some of the findings in the survey are germane to what is going on in the auto industry right now.

That is, GM notes in its 2025 Q4 Earnings Deck that in 2025 its deferred revenue (it can’t book the revenue until it gets it, and as it gets it as a matter of subscription payments, it is considered “deferred” but still likely to exist) for OnStar services—and it includes Super Cruise hands-off driving services—was $5.4 billion. That’s a year-over-year increase of 65 percent.

By the end of 2025 OnStar had 12 million subscribers and it is expected it will add more than a million during 2026.

As a result, there will be deferred revenue of some $7.5 billion in 2026. Certainly a nice bump over the 2025 $5.4 billion.

Of those figures, Super Cruise accounted for in excess of 620,000 subscribers in 2025, which is a solid 80 percent year-over-year growth.

With regard to the contribution to the digital services revenue, Super Cruise was at $234 million in 2025, with expectations it will be up to nearly $400 million in 2026.

Super Cruise has a subscription fee of $39.99 per month or $399 for an annual subscription.

Presently, many American households have a whole lot of subscriptions. Netflix and Spotify. Xbox Game Pass and NFL Sunday Ticket. Home internet service and mobile phone plans. Cloud storage and VPN services. Ring doorbells and Amazon Prime. Microsoft 365 and Apple News.

Which leads us back to the EY study.

Its survey found that 38 percent of households that are paying for streaming services have or will cancel a service this year. That is a 3 percent increase over 2024 numbers.

That is a move in the wrong direction for companies looking to get more subscribers to their services.

Certainly if someone has Apple TV and Netflix one of the two could be canceled without too much of a problem in terms of getting entertainment content. But if one has a GM product that person can’t have Ford BlueCruise. The technologies are similar but different.

Last year  CNET did a survey within the US on subscriptions.

It found the average US adult spends $1,080 per year on subscriptions and that “61percent of subscribers are rethinking their paid subscriptions because of the state of the economy.”

As you may have noticed, the state of the economy isn’t a whole lot better, if at all, than it was last year.

And last year, beyond the “thinking about it” there were 26 percent that canceled a subscription.

The $1,080 per year is $90 per month.

After a trial period Super Cruise costs $39.99 per month or $399 for an annual plan

If that average person doesn’t have Super Cruise as part of her or his subscription portfolio now, realize that the $39.99 is 44 percent of that current monthly spend of $90. The $399 is 37 percent of the $1,080.

Ford BlueCruise subscriptions are more expensive: $49.99 per month or $495 per year.

Now there is certainly an argument to be made that unlike Apple TV v. Netflix or Paramount+ v. Peacock, the hands-free driving systems offer drivers a completely different experience while behind the wheel.

However, there is something else that needs to be considered, which is the amount of use of not a hands-free driving setup but a passenger vehicle.

According to the most recent US Census Bureau’s “American Community Survey,” the mean one-way travel to work time in 2024 was 27.2 minutes, or 54.4 minutes round trip. The US Department of Energy puts the total time a vehicle is used per day at 64.4 minutes.

According to media analyst  Comscore’s “State of Streaming 2025” report, households are “spending nearly 5 hours per day streaming.”

Which means some 80 percent more time on the couch than in the car.

While there will certainly be growth in the number of subscribers to services like Super Cruise, remember that’s from a small base.

At present there are approximately 77 million US households with Netflix. Not a small base.

The bottom line is that it all comes down to disposable income.

Somehow it seems that there would be a tougher argument to make that Mom or Dad needs Super Cruise more than the family needs Netflix.

(Netflix, incidentally, offers subscriptions starting at $7.99 per month for the service with ads going to Premium $24.99 per month, which means watching can be performed on four supported devices—from TV to PlayStation consoles—at once. No, it won’t let you drive your car hands-free, but it will let you watch “Stranger Things,” which your car can’t do. And speaking of that series: according to  Nielsen, from December 29, 2025 to January 4, 2026, 8,650,000 minutes were spent in the US watching it. And if we add the following nine shows comprising the top 10 list for that week, it is 17,848,000,000 minutes spent with Netflix alone. Cars may be parked 95 percent of the time. TVs apparently aren’t.)

The most recent numbers from  Experian have it that the average monthly car payment is currently $748 per month. Maybe another $39.99 isn’t that big a deal, but when there is considerable concern about “affordability” in all aspects of life, when there are non-trivial numbers of people canceling their subscription services, it might serve the OEMs well if they’re a bit cautious about how they see their future subscription revenues.

After all, how is that former exuberance about EVs working out?

Long-time automotive journalist Gary Vasilash is co-host of "Autoline After Hours" and is a North American Car, Truck & Utility of the Year juror. He is also a contributor to Wards Auto and a juror for its 10 Best Interiors UX and 10 Best Engines & Propulsion Systems awards. He has written for a number of outlets, ranging from Composites Technology to Car and Driver.

The TTAC Creators Series tells stories and amplifies creators from all corners of the car world, including culture, dealerships, collections, modified builds and more.

Check out Gary's Substack here. Republished with permission.

[Image: Linaimages/Shutterstock.com]

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