Streamer Survey Shows 20 Percent Plan to Downgrade Pay TV Service
Online video streaming services haven't done much damage to traditional pay TV services yet, but there's more to come. Digital services company CSG Systems International released a survey on active video streamers in the U.S., finding that 20 percent plan to switch, downgrade, or completely disconnect their pay TV services in the next 6 months.
The survey offers a detailed look at video streamers. Questioning nearly 2,000 consumers who regularly use online video streaming services, it found that 80 percent subscribe to at least one online video service in addition to (or instead of) pay TV, while half of these subscribe to multiple services. Nearly the same amount (79 percent) stream mostly to their television sets.
Not surprisingly, streaming rates for young adults are far higher than the general population. Millennials spend over half of their television viewing time with streaming services. They see less value in pay TV because of the streaming options available.
Many streamers are interested in new types of bundled services, CSG finds, which combines centralized billing, subscriptions, and search for multiple providers. CSG says pay TV providers can take advantage of this demand.
“Pay TV providers are uniquely positioned to deliver the video bundle of the future, as they already have the network infrastructure, customer preference history, analytic insights, and billing relationship to tie everything together in a way that delivers innovative new value to the market,” says Brian Shepherd, president of broadband, cable, and satellite business at CSG International.
Of course, pay TV services aren't the only ones creating video bundles. During a keynote address at NAB in April, Michael Paull, vice president of digital video at Amazon, announced his company's desire to create a one-stop video shop. "We would like to have every digital video service and channel on our platform," he said.
For more, download "Going With the Flow: How to Captivate Video Streamers" for free (registration required).
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