Viewers Unsatisfied by Fragmented OTT Options: Hub Research
More choices, more problems. While today's viewers have more options than ever in the entertainment they can access from their TV (or any other connected screen) the experience of choosing streaming services makes them unhappy. According to data from Hub Entertainment Research, most people need to subscribe to 3 or 4 services to meet their needs. Only 40 percent of viewers who subscribe to 1 service say their entertainment needs are well met, while 47 percent of those subscribing to 2 services say the same. When viewers subscribe to 3 services, 51 percent say their entertainment needs are well met, and 62 percent of those subscribing to 4 or more services say the same.
Viewers subscribing to 4 or more services pay around the same as they would for traditional pay TV service, but many still aren't satisfied. Hub says the difficulty of selecting services is part of the problem: A low 22 percent say the increasing number of streaming services makes it easy to choose the best options. That number is down from 33 percent in 2017.
What viewers want are aggregated solutions, Hub says. It found 69 percent would rather get all their TV content from a single source, as opposed to 31 percent who prefer working with individual companies. But viewers don't want the old cable model of aggregation: They want to choose the channels they get. Hub says 43 percent want to choose and pay for only their preferred networks, while 10 percent like predetermined bundles.
“The novelty of having so many options for TV content is wearing off. Now consumers want simplicity and efficiency," says Peter Fondulas, principal at Hub. “Bundles that aggregate content from multiple sources are highly desirable—but only if those bundles include little or no content they know they won’t watch.”
Hub got its data by surveying 2,056 U.S. broadband customers age 16 to 74 who watch TV for 5 hours or more per week. For more info, download Hub's “The Best Bundle: Consumer Preferences in a Peak TV World” for free (registration required).
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