Parks Associates
New research from Parks Associates shows that 60% of pay-TV subscribers (accounting for nearly half of US broadband households) are interested in streaming movies and TV shows from an online video service as part of their pay-TV subscription. The study Pay TV: Perception, Adoption, and Retention note that pay-TV providers are responding to this demand, as the number of pay-TV consumers who receive online video services has jumped nearly 50% in a year.
This new research examines the consumer perceptions of pay-TV services and features and measures the efficacy of different options pay-TV providers can leverage to retain subscribers. It also contrasts traditional pay-TV services and vMVPD services.
“If there was ever a time when entertainment service providers believed that OTT was a phase, they are now convinced of its permanence. In late 2019, the market reached the crossover point where the same percentage of US broadband households subscribed to an OTT service as subscribed to a pay-TV service, and now OTT adoption outpaces pay-TV by double digits. The good news for providers is consumers often have both pay-TV and OTT—79% of pay-TV households have both pay-TV and OTT subscriptions. Providers are in a spot where they must redouble their efforts to engage these subscribers by executing new innovations and business models, or risk accelerating customer losses,” said Kristen Hanich, senior analyst, Parks Associates.
COVID-19 dramatically accelerated the adoption of online video services, providing a small boost to online pay-TV services specifically. The average number of OTT services among households that have any OTT service is 3.8, while households with pay-TV services plus at least one OTT service subscribe to 4.2 OTT services, on average.
