US pay-TV subs ‘$40 for à la carte ideal’
March 17, 2016
Digitalsmiths’ Q4 2015 Pay-TV and Online Video Trends report shows that 73.6 per cent of respondents in the US would like to choose only the channels they want to watch.
While skinny bundles are the new trend in TV packages, the amount of respondents who would like an à la carte channel option decreased for the fourth quarter in a row.
The top five most desired channels among respondents were:
1. Discovery Channel
2. ABC
3. CBS
4. History
5. NBC
Additionally, the average price respondents want to pay for self-selected channels is $40.56 (€35.40) per month, or $3.63 per channel, per month.
With the introduction of numerous competitive OTT and skinny package services in recent months, it is not surprising that the number of respondents who want an à la carte pay-TV solution continues to decline; however, 73.6 per cent is still a large population of interested respondents. While new offerings such as Sling TV and Sony’s PlayStation Vue have introduced streaming of limited channels, almost all major pay-TV providers have a package with 50-70 channels for roughly $49 or less.
The question is, do consumers discover these packages through marketing efforts, or are pay-TV providers using these packages to prevent churn? Digitalsmiths vows to continuing watching and report on this trend in each future quarter.