research rehash_research 29/08/2014 16:52 Page 1
RESEARCH ROUND UP
Video streaming
drives connected
device purchases
The most important determining factor among consumers in purchasing a new
TV or video device is the
ability for it to connect to
the Internet and stream content, a new study has found.
Smart TVs were selected
by the majority of households
participating in the qualitative
study, an acceleration ethnography designed to help determine consumers' likely future
video-device purchases, conducted for the Council for
Research Excellence (CRE) by
GfK.
The acceleration ethnography was conducted among 50
households in the Chicago
area, which were tracked over
a 15-week period from
November 2013 to April
2014; members' online and
in-store purchases were monitored via self-reporting,
behaviour and usage surveys,
and follow-up questions
based on incoming data.
Smart TVs were followed
by TV-set-connectable overthe-top (OTT) streaming
devices (such as a Roku box
or Google Chromecast
device), which were typically
purchased alongside other
devices such as smart TVs.
Tablets were purchased by a
minority of the households.
Researchers found that the
dominant consideration driving video-device purchase and
usage decisions was content,
and that consumers demand
devices that can stream content - to enable time-shifting
or binge-watching, for
example. All participating
house-
holds sought ways
to stream content,
regardless of demographic or
technographic differences.
14 IP television
Also, 'casting' content from
one device to another was a
material attraction for participants.
When TV sets with OTT
access were introduced into a
household, they became the
most-used device for video,
generating increased group
viewing. The TV set, whether
'smart' or connected to a
streaming device, remained
the dominant video-viewing
device, although other
devices were often present in
the same room.
The acceleration study ran
concurrently with an ongoing,
two-year longitudinal ethnography, also conducted for the
CRE by GfK, involving a
national selection of 100
households.
Among initial findings
from the longitudinal study:
l Family and friends especially children,
teenagers and 'boomerang'
young adults who have
returned to parents' homes
- often act as influencers
and agents of change,
influencing not only technology purchasing decisions but which content is
consumed;
l consumers have moved
from a single-source, single-device 'mental model'
to a multi-source, multidevice model;
l a family is likely to
watch together on a TV set
on week-nights and then
watch on laptops in their
own rooms between 9
p.m. and 10 p.m.; and
l where, when and how
content is consumed often
are determined by negotiation
among multiple household
members -- although typically the father of the
household plays the role
of 'manager' of the
remote.
“We learned that con-
region.
According to Guy Bisson,
research director, television
at IHS Technology, hardest hit
Total Europe net additions by platforms
Cable subscribers
Satellite pay TV
Pay DTT
IPTV
000s
000s
000s
000s
2014
Q1
-162
698
-67
1,035
Source: IHS
sumers want to watch content
on the best available screen typically the screen known as
the 'TV' most often found in
the living room,” said Bryon
Schafer, who serves as chair
of the CRE's Digital Research
Committee and is senior vice
president, Warner Bros. media
research & insights. “We also
learned that kids in many
ways are the gatekeepers due
to their ability to grasp and
advocate new viewing technologies.”
“The term 'watching TV'
has grown to mean the viewing of any long form content
on any screen,” added Laura
Cowan, director, analytics and
insight at MEC, who led the
team conducting the acceleration study. “The programme
grid is continuing to diminish
in importance as consumers
adopt technologies that allow
them to design their ideal
viewing time and place.”
Cord-cutting now a
reality in Europe
Pay-TV cord-cutting is now
an undeniable phenomenon
in a large number of
European markets as 12
countries witnessed a decline
in overall pay TV
uptake in the first quarter of 2014, according to
IHS Technology’s latest
European pay-TV Update.
Six of these markets are
seeing their second quarter
of decline, suggesting a
sustained softening of payTV across much of the
are the Benelux and
Scandinavian markets along
with some of the smaller
Central and Eastern European
markets were recent strong
growth is now reversing.
The 12 markets showing a
decline in Q1 2014 are:
Belgium, Denmark, Italy,
Malta, Netherlands, Norway,
Sweden, Czech Republic,
Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova,
and Poland.
To date, only Italy among
the five big European markets
has suffered a sustained
downturn in pay-TV. France,
Germany, Spain and the UK
are all continuing to grow at
above the European average.
Until recently, the cord-cutting phenomenon had largely
been confined to the US market where very high pay-TV
penetration, high monthly
cost and the economic downturn created a perfect storm
that is now seeing a sustained downturn and the
emergence of a new subgroup of ‘cord-nevers’—
young households that do not
bother taking a pay-TV subscription.
Europe has remained
largely immune from this
trend, in part because the
generally lower pay-TV uptake
leaves far more headroom for
growth and because growth
from IPTV in the West and
low-cost digital satellite in the
East has more than made up
from losses on cable.
While individual markets
such as Italy and the
Netherlands have had several
quarters of decline, a sustained two-consecutive-quar-