Research: Consumers reach SVoD saturation
June 13, 2019
By Colin Mann
According to findings from digital piracy data specialist MUSO looking into the increasingly fragmented streaming services landscape, 80.4 per cent of European adults think that they’re currently paying too much for content streaming.
In a year that will see new streaming services launch from the likes of Apple, Disney and BritBox, the joint-venture between ITV and BBC, 64.2 per cent of those surveyed said they wouldn’t be paying out for any more services this year. Two-thirds (66.7 per cent) of people said that they currently subscribe to one or two streaming services and 20.8 per cent subscribe to three or four services.
With 66 per cent of people surveyed paying under £30 (€33.65) a month for streaming services, there is a low ceiling on what consumers expect to pay for the content they enjoy. When asked about content that’s not available to them on any of their current choice of service, 50.8 per cent said they were likely or very likely to search for that content across unlicensed platforms. 30.9 per cent said that they would be unlikely or very unlikely to consider unlicensed channels and 18.3 per cent said that they would be neither likely nor unlikely.
According to MUSO’s Global Piracy Index released earlier in 2019, UK audiences made over 5.7 billion visits to piracy sites in 2018 and ranked ninth in the world. 3.2 billion of those overall visits were specifically around unlicensed TV streaming.
“Expecting consumers to pay almost £100 a month for access to content may well be a challenge,” suggested Andy Chatterley, CEO and co-founder at MUSO. “So much of it is siloed off and exclusive across so many different paid-for platforms, that it’s difficult for consumers to subscribe to everything they want. This research shows that people will inevitably seek it elsewhere via unlicensed platforms, but this does, however, create further opportunities for content owners to understand this audience with meaningful and valuable insights.”
“With most people only subscribing to only a couple of services, it’s going to be really interesting to see what happens with the launch of Disney+ and Apple TV+. Will consumers ditch an existing service for one of the new ones? Or will Apple struggle to crack the TV market again?”