Survey: ‘Content anytime’ now a habit
March 14, 2017
End-to-end OTT TV solutions provider SPB TV’s survey of a sample of 50,000 respondents out of its 60 million-user base digs looking for insights that elucidate viewer preferences highlight a growing demand for the ‘TV catch-up’ feature.
Key findings:
- Content Anytime – Not a Feature, But a Habit
- The most striking finding of this year is the ‘TV catch-up’ feature. It jumped 8 points up from number 10, as the now second most-demanded feature cited by 42 per cent of respondents. 45 per cent of respondents would subscribe to a service for having access to catch-up content. It is a 19 per cent increase since 2015.
- Today, the possibility of integrating TV viewing in the viewer’s schedule instead of building a schedule around the TV timetable is, the primary principle of OTT TV.
- Personal TV and Recommendations – Countless Opportunities for Engagement
- Personal profile – a feature allowing OTT TV users to create their own content collections, access their viewing history, indicate their name and avatar, and much more – is demanded by more than a half of SPB TV respondents regardless of their age.
- 47 per cent of SPB TV respondents are certain they want to have their profiles available on shared in-home devices, like Smart TV s and set-top boxes.
- The most highly valued personal profile features are the ability to control your own content lists (65 per cent of respondents) and personalized content recommendations (50 per cent).
- 47 per cent of respondents find content recommendations very helpful for discovering new exciting content and choosing what to watch at the moment. 33 per cent of respondents look forward to the improvement in the relevance of recommendations.
- A hybrid recommender system combining content similarity with collaborative filtering algorithms and real-time adjustments support can become the most effective solution to content recommendation challenge.
- TV on the Go
- The smartphone penetration rate among the OTT TV viewers reaches 80 per cent.
- Smartphones are primary connected devices of choice for video viewing. Their leadership status is highest among the Generation Z respondents (72 per cent of respondents) followed by the Millennials (69 per cent).
- Mobile viewing is mainly driven by short videos with 61 per cent of respondents watching YouTube and similar videos every day on their smartphones, and 58 per cent – on their tablets. However, smartphones are also second-best for linear TV viewing – after TV-sets.
- Linear TV Channels
- Watching TV remains a favourite family entertainment for many decades. Younger families of 24 to 35 years old initially discover TV content in a new OTT format.
- TV channels are still most often watched through TV-sets with PCs and smartphones hot on their heels.
- The availability of TV channels over OTT is very different across the screens. Most of connected TV users enjoy over 100 TV channels, while mobile TV usually offers less than 20.
- Set-top Boxes
- Set-top boxes are more often provided by TV operators (44 per cent) rather than chosen by the end-users.
- As for the independently purchased devices, Android TV shows a radiant success (25 per cent of all set-top box users) while Google Chromecast loses ground (13 per cent). Apple TV displays stability with one fifth of all connected TV users being its customers.
- The users of set-top boxes and other TV-enabling devices are more inclined to upgrading their equipment on a regular basis than Smart TV users displaying a long-term satisfaction with their home TV equipment.
- The Perfect TV Formula
- A perfect home TV bundle should offer different types of media: movies, series, TV channels, as well as music, new and articles.
- Female respondents would appreciate integration of their home media system with their personal notes and reminders (19 per cent) and health & fitness tracking system (17 per cent).
- Interactivity is a powerful tool for enriching the user experience and improving the commercial opportunities of the service. OTT TV users are interested in such opportunities like accessing additional information about what they watch (36 per cent), taking part in contests and quizzes (25 per cent), and influencing what will happen in the upcoming episodes (19 per cent).
- One third of all respondents believe that targeting parameters help to increase the relevance of the OTT TV advertisements. 24 per cent trust in the efficiency of programmatic algorithms selecting the ads depending on the viewers’ behaviour and interests.