Study: 60% of Pay-TV Households Want Their Pay-TV to Include Streaming Services
Six in 10 pay-TV subscribers want traditional pay-TV to include streaming services as part of the pay-TV subscription, according to new research from Parks Associates.
Online video services and traditional pay-TV saw subscriber growth in the last year, largely due to the pandemic, according to the research firm. The researchers estimates that “the average number of OTT services among households that have any OTT service is 3.8, while households with pay-TV services plus at least one OTT service subscribe to 4.2 OTT services, on average.”
The research also found:
- Increased cancellations of pay-TV
- More than four-in-10 (43%) of pay-TV households are interested in having video calls on their TV and 40% are interested in controlling smart home devices and security systems from the TV
- Thirty-four percent are interested in playing video games on the TV through a cloud gaming service
“If there was ever a time when entertainment service providers believed that OTT was a phase, they are now convinced of its permanence,” said Kristen Hanich, Parks Associates senior analyst, in a prepared statement. “In late 2019, the market reached the crossover point where the same percentage of US broadband households subscribed to an OTT service as subscribed to a pay-TV service, and now OTT adoption outpaces pay TV by double digits. The good news for providers is consumers often have both pay TV and OTT—79% of pay-TV households have both pay-TV and OTT subscriptions. Providers are in a spot where they must redouble their efforts to engage these subscribers by executing new innovations and business models, or risk accelerating customer losses.”