TORONTO – Despite an enormous and rapid shift in TV and video viewing behaviour towards mobility, content discovery remains a huge frustration for consumers, says a new report by Ericsson.
The Ericsson ConsumerLab TV and Media Report 2016 is the largest study of its kind into TV viewing habits. Based on interviews with 30,000 individuals aged 16-69 in 24 countries (including Canada), the report statistically represents the views of 1.1 billion people. All respondents have a broadband Internet connection at home and watch TV and video at least once a week. Almost all use the Internet on a daily basis.
Average viewing times on mobile devices has grown by more than 200 hours a year since 2012, driving up overall TV and video viewing by an additional 1.5 hours a week, according to the report. The surge in mobile viewing is offset with a decline in fixed screen viewing of 2.5 hours a week, however the appetite for TV and video is not waning.
A major issue, continues the report, is low consumer satisfaction when trying to find something to watch. Forty four percent of U.S. consumers say they can't find anything to watch on linear TV on a daily basis, an increase of 22% compared with last year (36%). In contrast, U.S. consumers spend 45% more time choosing what to watch on VOD services than linear TV.
Paradoxically, 63% of consumers claim that they are very satisfied with content discovery when it comes to their VOD service, while only 51% say the same for linear TV. The findings suggest that although the VOD discovery process is more time consuming than with linear broadcast TV, consumers rate it as less frustrating, as it implicitly promises the opportunity to find something they want to watch, when they want to watch it.
Other highlights from the report include:
– In the U.S., 20% of mobile viewing is paid-for content using services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime;
– Led by millennials, 40% of consumers globally say they are ‘very interested’ in a mobile data plan that includes unlimited video streaming capabilities;
– Consumers continue to binge watch: 37% watch two or more episodes of the same show in a row on a weekly basis, and more than one fifth say that they do this daily;
– Consumer spending on VOD services in the U.S. has increased by over 60% since 2012, from $13 to $20 per month.
