Posted on 12/19/2017 12:39:25 PM PST by nickcarraway
Pay television subscriptions have been decreasing since 2015
According to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the streaming audience is growing—but in unexpected directions.
Fewer people are paying for linear TV than in previous years, but the number of Netflix users is rising. In 2016, about 76 percent of people paid for linear TV; this year, that number dropped to 73 percent, which is the same percentage of people who use Netflix. According to the chart below, pay TV subscriptions have been decreasing since 2015 to make room for cord cutters and cord trimmers.
While 75% of consumers with Pay TV say they can’t handle using over four services, respondents report that they pay more for video today than they did last year. Of all the services these respondents use, 46 percent are ones they subscribed to or tried out within the last six months, indicating that this is still a highly exploratory space.
About 55 percent of cord trimmers regularly subscribe to trial versions of these services, but 33 percent don’t typically continue their subscription once that trial is over. The top reason for not keeping a subscription: The consumer didn’t use it often enough to justify the price. According to PwC, people are more likely to select a service based on its breadth of programs than the content exclusive to that platform.
How can streaming services appeal to consumers and convince them to stick around for longer?
All of these options are adding up to confused consumers faced with too many choices. PwC recommends for streaming services and pay TV providers to “relinquish the need to own everything and figure out how to partner with one another.” In other words, team up and stop stressing everyone out with too many options.
Marketers for streaming services should view cord cutters and cord-nevers as a new audience opportunity; they’ve come to expect low or no commitments to join these kinds of services and are getting used to balancing more than three at a time. Keeping your service easy to use with an “old-school channel surfing” aesthetic will also soothe overwhelmed consumers.
Other pain points include highly repetitive ads, which only 40 percent of people see as more relevant than ones served to them on pay TV. Respondents said frequent and long ad breaks take away from their enjoyment, and many prefer more longer upfront ads with fewer interruptions throughout the program.
For more details on the entire study—and how this new world affects sports fans in particular—check out PwC’s full report here.
I cut loose of the satellite a couple of months ago. If I had a DVR, I would never miss it.
We still use Amazon Prime and YouTube and find enough to watch that way (we only watch maybe 4 hours a week tops anyway.)
Same here. My neighbor cut his 5 years ago. All internet. Heck, he mostly downloads his shows ONLY by torrent.
And you touch on a good point, of how you watch up to 4 hours a week. People with busy lives just don’t have hours and hours a week to devote to all these entertainment options.
People have told me how great Netflix is, I should get it, etc. etc. And I just am not motivated, in part because, I do have a life, other things going on in life, and just don’t feel motivated to sign on. Similar to you, I find things on Youtube, and still have conventional satellite TV, so I am not at a lack of things to watch when I want to chill out and just watch TV.
He hasn't gone to jail yet?
Bump.
Does anyone know if the ISPs will start throttling bits from netflix and others?
I now subscribe to britbox. I missed all the great brit-coms, mysteries and dramas so now I can watch whenever I like. $6.99/ mo. ;o)
Now if only they could put some decent movies on their streaming service, 99.5% suck.
Got a notification that they are raising prices the other day.
“Does anyone know if the ISPs will start throttling bits from netflix and others?”
Probably not. Even leftist Yahoo writes that the claims of providers doing that are fear mongering.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-can-expect-fcc-kills-net-neutrality-153211716.html
They didn't before Net Neutrality so would they now?
I'm here at home all day working and it's never on.
In the evening after dinner, we might plop down at that time to watch something, but my wife will fall asleep within minutes, and then I'll go back to reading my book.
Classic case of the “innovators dilemma”. While the cable companies were focused on maintain subscribers and shoving more channels of worthless crap at us, an innovator came along, initially underperformed but found a niche, and now is an existential threat. If this hadn’t happened in other industries, we’d still be using zip drives and TVs wouldn’t hang on the wall.
Do u happen to know the difference between Britbox, Acorn, PBS, Masterpiece Theatre? They are all British are they not?
“consumers faced with too many choices” except the choice they want: ala carte.
Maybe the evil, controlling government should require all programs to be offered to all services, for a moderate premium.
You do not really believe PBS is British, do you?
Exactly
Seems like PBS gets a lot of funding from left-wing Annenberg Foundation, no? (I don’t actually know) - but seems like I’ve seen them referenced more than a couple of times.
No, I wasn’t thinking.
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