A majority of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) subscribers (61%) are willing to spend $2 or more to keep their favourite service, and (81%) are willing to spend to add a new service that had content they found interesting, according to IBB Consulting.
The firm’s recent survey found that over half of paid over-the-top (OTT) users (51%) subscribe to more than one SVOD service, with 18% paying for three or more. Younger demographics, especially millennials, are more likely than any other demographic to subscribe to do the latter.
About a third (29%) of paid OTT video subscribers plan to add an additional paid service within the next six months.
Based on average SVOD pricing, a majority (61%) of SVOD subscribers are willing to pay at least 20% more for their favourite service; and, interest in live TV is strong, with nearly half (47%) of paid streamers willing to pay beyond their current subscription costs to add it to the mix. Millennials are over-indexed here again, being more likely than any other demographic to be willing to spend on live streaming content.
“There is continued increasing demand for SVOD, and having the right tools and data to find and engage customers when they’re ready to buy is critical in this competitive market,” said Jonathan Weitz, partner, IBB Consulting. “When IBB works with clients on SVOD marketing strategies, we emphasise that essential components of a world-class offering are a high quality viewing experience with compelling features and an attractive interface, instant access to a diverse set of flagship content, and easily findable ancillary programming that feels familiar but offers new content to discover.”
When it comes to finding content, a third of users say they prefer browsing and surfing, 24% rely on suggestions from social media, 19% get recommendations online and 13% rely on either in-app recommendations or search tools.
“Almost half of consumers’ preferred discovery options require that OTT providers offer features that support a better experience,” said Weitz. “This means that in addition to improving how paid OTT providers market to new users, they must also take steps to ensure that offerings are easy to use. With constantly expanding libraries, strong human curation and effective recommendation engines driven by machine learning, in particular, are key to the overall SVOD customer experience.”
