TORONTO – Regular video on demand use by Canadians dropped in the third quarter of 2007 according to new research.
Advance results from the third quarter Fast Forward 2007 survey by Solutions Research Group says that in August 2007, 11% of digital cable households in Canada used VOD on a weekly basis, down slightly from 14% in May 2007.
While overall, 43% of all Canadian digital cable subscribers used video on demand at least once sometime in the past, fully one-in-two (50%) of all digital cable subscribers say they’re aware of it, but that they have never used it, says the research.
Drilling down, while 45% of Canadian VOD users were very satisfied with the VOD service, the balance of users qualified their satisfaction.
Among these subscribers, the most frequently cited point of pain was lack of "selection/choice/variety" in content, says the research. Technical issues were also cited – as one subscriber noted: "one out of five times I wish to use it, the service freezes on me and I am either required to reboot my cable box, or wait for the service to fix itself if it’s a widespread issue."
Canada continues to lag significantly behind the U.S. in VOD use – primarily due relative lack of content and slow deployment. In the States, 27% of digital cable subscribers (about twice the level in Canada) used VOD on a weekly basis in the second quarter of 2007 (and 60% used it at least once sometime in the past).
Fast Forward Quarterly is Solutions Research Group’s ongoing independent trend research study that tracks broadband, social media, on-demand TV, mobile entertainment and wireless.
