The changing face of our viewing habits

The report shows interesting key findings reflecting consumer views and industry sce?narios including the revelation that streamed on-demand content is soaring; millennials prefer the mobile screens; linear TV remains key; finding content is difficult; binge viewing changes the game; and non-believers in tra?ditional pay TV may eventually change their minds. 

The report was conducted by qualitative [interviews] and quantitative data collec?tions in 20 countries – Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, UK, Ukraine and the US.

Streamed on-demand content is soaring.

Over 50 per cent of consumers state that they watch streamed on-demand video con?tent at least once a day, up from 30 per cent in 2010. 

Today, people estimate that they spend six hours a week watching streamed TV series, other programmes and on-demand movies. This has more than doubled since 2011.

Millennials prefer the mobile screens. 

Those aged 16–34 spend 53 per cent of all their video viewing time on a smart?phone, a lap?top or a tablet.

Since 2012 the number of consumers across all age groups who watch video on their smartphones has increased by 71 per cent. The average time spent watching videos on mobile devices is up three hours a week compared to 2012.

Linear TV remains key.

The popularity of linear TV remains high, mainly due to its access to premium viewing and live content like sports and its social value.

Linear viewing is linked to age: 82 per cent of 60–69 year olds say they watch linear TV on a daily basis, while only 60 per cent of mil?lennials (those aged 16–34) do so.

The difficulty of finding content. 

Half of consumers watching linear TV say they cannot find anything to watch at least once a day. As many as 62 per cent of con?sumers aged 25–34 face this challenge on a daily basis. Consumers feel that recommen?dation features are simply not smart or per?sonal enough.

Binge viewing changes the game. 

Bingeing, the watching of multiple episodes of TV and video content in a row, has rapidly become a key part of the TV and media experience.

This habit is prominent among subscrip?tion video-on-demand (S-VOD) users, where 87 per cent binge view at least once a week, compared to 74 per cent of non-S-VOD users.

Non-believers in traditional pay TV may eventually change their minds. 

For TV cord-nevers (consumers who have never had a pay TV subscription) it is difficult to understand the value as it is offered today. Long binding times, inflexible packages and high costs and advertising cause 50 per cent to believe they will not pay for it, even in the future.

However, 22 per cent of cord-nevers are already paying for over-the-top content serv?ices, indicating a willingness to pay for sub?scription TV, albeit with a different bundle approach.

The report leads to the new business models.

The emergence of today’s demanding consumers puts new requirements and expectations on the TV and media experi?ence. There are three specific areas that influ?ence a consumer’s service experience: great content, flexibility and a high quality overall experience.

Consumers also wish for a TV/video bun?dle with unlimited mobile data, allowing them to watch content on the go without the risk of running out of data. This is very impor?tant to more than one third of consumers. To aggregate content on top of bundling broad?band, data plans and video makes for a seamless service experience.

Supporting these three areas will be cru?cial when creating the 21st century TV and media offering and bringing it to consumers, the report said.