Nearly half paid VoD rentals generated by cable
September 25, 2012
According to market research company The NPD Group, although renting movies through Internet video on demand (iVoD) is making inroads with a small but growing group of consumers, cable companies are consumers’ first choice when they order on-demand movies on a per-use basis.
Led by Comcast in the first half of 2012, 48 per cent of all paid video-on-demand (VoD) movie rentals were generated from cable VoD. With a 24 per cent rental-order growth rate year-over-year, NPD notes that telco VoD is the fastest growing segment of the VoD market, outpacing even the iVoD growth rate of 15 per cent. This data refers only to movie rentals that are paid for upon rental; subscription video rentals and video purchases are not included.
“When it comes to paying for on-demand movies on an à la carte basis, cable companies are by far the primary conduit, due in large part to their widespread penetration and usage in Americans’ homes,” advises Russ Crupnick, senior vice president of industry analysis for The NPD Group. “Even as iVoD, and VoD from satellite-media companies and telcos grow in popularity, cable companies continue to dominate the VoD movie rental market.”
According to NPD’s VideoWatch VOD report for the first half of 2012, paid-VOD movie rentals from cable company Comcast represented 23 per cent of the VoD rental market, followed by satellite TV provider DirectTV at 14 per cent, and Time-Warner Cable at 9 per cent. Apple iTunes’s iVoD service comprised 8 per cent of paid video rental transactions, followed by telco company Verizon and satellite TV provider Dish Network at 7 percent each. AT&T received the best customer ratings across a number of criteria, including site organisation, navigation and title availability.
According to the NPD Group, consumer audience demographics for iVoD movie rentals skew toward tech-savvy early adopters, primarily men (70 per cent). In fact, 44 per cent of IVoD movie rental orders were made by men aged 25 to 44, compared to only 21 per cent of cable VoD rental orders.