One streaming video OTT service isn’t enough, at least not for the 16% of the U.S. “viewing population,” who now live in multiple OTT subscription households. That’s up from 10 percent three years ago, according to a new market research report from GfK.
The viewing population is defined as “all those who watch any video at least once per week via any means – regular TV, streaming, or otherwise.” It represents 95% of the total 13-to-64 US population, according to GfK. Subscribing to multiple SVOD services is “self bundling” in GfK parlance.
By subscribing to multiple for-pay OTT VOD services, these household viewers can create their own service bundles. Such households are more likely than average to have kids (under 18) living in them – 50% as compared to an average 41% among all weekly viewers
These multiple OTT subscription households are also likely to have higher mean annual incomes of $90,000 or more. That compares to an average of $76,000 for the survey sample overall.
Furthermore, self-bundling U.S. households are less likely to subscribe to traditional cable, satellite or telco pay-TV services – 67% vs. an average 75%, ABI points out.
This could result in creation of a positive feedback loop that would work to the detriment of legacy pay-TV companies, GfK points out in “Over-the-Top TV 2016: A Complete Video Landscape.”
SVOD Self Bundling
Brands and content creators want and need access to high-income households and individuals, particularly young consumers, GfK notes.
According to the market research company’s findings, households that subscribe to multiple VOD services fit the bill, which would attract advertisers to SVOD providers as opposed to traditional cable, satellite and telco pay-TV service providers.
GfK evaluated 16 subscription-based OTT streaming video services for the study. Viewers who subscribed to two or more were categorized as self-bundling.
GfK found that half (49%) of the sample population subscribes to at least one, nearly two in 10 (17%) subscribe to Netflix and Amazon Prime, nine percent subscribe to Netflix and Hulu Plus, and five percent subscribe to all three.
Furthermore, GfK found that most of those who subscribe to Netflix and Hulu (59%) are less likely to subscribe to a traditional pay-TV service than those with Netflix and Amazon Prime (67%).
“As consumers start to self-bundle, the potential impact of increasing subscriber fees for each streaming service will be compounded,” said David Tice, SVP of Media and Entertainment at GfK. “The last one to a price increase party may be the first one cancelled – so individual streaming services need to consider competitor plans before instituting price hikes. There may also be a place in the market for a third-party aggregator of discounted streaming services.”
