Brightcove, a global provider of cloud services for video, has published its annual OTT TV market study for Asia, The 2019 Asia OTT Research Report, conducted with research partner YouGov, a global public opinion and data company.

The study polled 9,000 participants across nine countries in Asia, including 1,000 consumers in Singapore. The survey was designed to uncover insights into consumer preferences around OTT services, including subscription tiers and motivators driving subscriptions; how much consumers are willing to pay; their tolerance to advertising and ad-supported subscriptions; and openness to a shoppable TV experience post-programming.

Key findings for Singapore include:

• 47 per cent of ‘Lapsed’ respondents are planning to sign-up for OTT services again in the future.
• The top three reasons for respondents subscribing to multiple OTT services were: content not being available on any single OTT service (47 per cent),  the desire for more content options (45 per cent), and to satisfy content needs for their family (35 per cent).
• Thinking about the future, 31 per cent of respondents in Singapore want to pay nothing and watch ads as a trade-off to consuming content, 19 per cent elected to pay nothing and watch no ads, and 17 per cent would like to pay a higher fee to not see ads.
• When asked how much would respondents be willing to pay for OTT services, 24 per cent of respondents stated less than $1 per month, 22 per cent would pay $1-$4 per month, and 25 per cent would pay $5-$9 per month.
• 30 per cent of respondents in Singapore found one ad as an acceptable advertising load per ad break and 20 per cent were open to two ads per break.
• 58 per cent of respondents said they might be open to a hybrid model, where reduced monthly subscription packages also serve ads – depending on the price, whereas 19 per cent said they would definitely sign up, representing a potential market size of 77 per cent of respondents polled favouring this option.
• Offline downloads (45 per cent), using less mobile data when streaming (42 per cent) and access on mobile (40 per cent) were the top three OTT service features most wanted by respondents in Singapore.
• When asked if respondents would be open to purchasing product as seen on TV, 61 per cent of respondents were receptive to the idea of shoppable TV.

Greg Armshaw, Head of Sales, Asia, at Brightcove said, “Our research findings show that Singaporeans are more price sensitive than any other consumers in the region. Price sensitivity could be due to being wary about incremental costs to subscribe to OTT services. OTT TV service providers in Singapore need to focus on not just a compelling content library but also price plans with high level of flexibility to opt-in and out of subscriptions with ease. At Brightcove, we consult with media organisations of all sizes about how to succeed in local markets, as well as provide insights into what kind of customised OTT monetisation strategies would work best in specific markets.”

The report was co-sponsored by Evergent, a provider of cloud-based, user lifecycle management solutions for video service providers; and SpotX, a global video advertising and monetisation platform.

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