TV Everywhere International - Volume 13 No 2 TV EVERYWHERE_Vol 13 No 2 | Page 26

Research
survey of 2,250 consumers reveals that consumers, 49% ranked service value in the structures and underlying
nearly 40% of us won’t wait more than ten as ‘very good’ and 37% as ‘good.’ Only technologies of the pay-TV offers, even
seconds for a website to respond before 11% were neutral, and just 3% ranked the when benchmarking the most basic offers
navigating away. One in nine users (11%) services as having poor value. from each provider.
won’t even give a site five seconds before
moving onto another website.
“Given that virtual pay-TV services
prices and contents of nearly 1,900
The survey also found that digital premised on ‘skinny’ channel bundles pay-TV offers for 115 providers in 31
disappointment affects brand loyalty, at lower-than-cable prices, user value OECD countries, using a methodology
with 60% of consumers likely to be less perception is a critical metric,” notes established through a number of client
loyal towards a brand if they experience Michael Greeson, president and principal studies in recent years. When selecting
poor website or app performance. 10% analyst at TDG. “Early evidence suggests the most basic set of user requirements,
of participants said they would never vMVPD [virtual multichannel video without specific requirements for content
return to an offending brand for goods or programming distributor] providers or technical capabilities such as HD or
services. Swedes are least loyal towards are doing well in this regard. Users recording, the ten countries with lowest
a brand that lets them down online, with seem okay without the ‘full Monty’ of prices are Poland, Sweden, Finland,
73% likely to turn to competitors. legacy pay-TV channels, and to be fairly Estonia, Hungary, Denmark, Austria,
tolerant of the shortcomings that haunt Australia, Slovak Republic and Slovenia.
“These results demonstrate that digital
consumers have limited patience for live streaming video, such as buffering,
slow performance or delays,” advised pixilation, and screen freezing.”
Carmen Carey, CEO, Apica. “There is
TDG believes that, as with SVoD in
Even among the cheapest offers per
country, there are pay-TV packages that
include more advanced properties such
clearly a general expectation that sites 2009, early vMVPD users offer a unique as HD and recording. The range of offers
and apps will perform faster and better, prism through which to view the future may vary significantly between providers.
particularly with the advent of born of TV and video. Accordingly, TDG is For the most basic requirements, the
digital organisations. The onus is now launching multi-client research focused average monthly price across the 31
on businesses, whether they’re a leading exclusively on vMVPD users to assess who countries is $/PPP (purchasing power
financial company or an online retailer, to they are, what drives their decisions and parity)21.73 including VAT/tax, down
ensure peak performance at all times.” preferences, and how their behaviour may from $22.02 six months ago. This does
impact the future of TV. not include the TV Licence fee prevalent
The survey also revealed that users
have limited patience for organisations
in many countries.
and apps. Less than half (46%) of users Promotional activity driving
down pay-TV prices to vary significantly by provider and
said that several hours of downtime Research from the Teligen division country,” advised Teligen director Halvor
was acceptable, and even then, reasons of market intelligence firm Strategy Sannæs.
for the downtime had to be properly Analytics comparing pay-TV service prices communicated. 54% respondents had an as of May 2017, covering 31 of the OECD market with, on one hand, some
‘upper limit’ of one hour, and more than countries, suggests that the average operators running deep price promotions,
1/10 (13%) actually expect 100% uptime. price of the cheapest basic Pay TV introducing stripped down packages
package tracked is declining by -1.3% vs. with less channels to attract or retain
likely to impact brand reputation with November 2016. According to Strategy customers, and on the other hand, other
83% of global respondents reporting they Analytics, this price decline is as a result operators are offering pay-TV bundled
would consider telling colleagues about of an increase of promotional activity. with fixed broadband to provide further
The report, Pay TV prices in OECD technological capabilities adding value
that schedule maintenance on websites
Negative digital experiences are also
a poor website or app experience, and
almost 4 in 10 would definitely share this.
“Pay-TV prices and trends continue
“Pay-TV remains a very competitive
countries, May 2017, also highlights to their offers and adapting to new
significant differences in pay-TV prices ways of watching TV,” added Teligen
customers and revenue, they must even between providers in the same benchmarking consultant Edouard
focus on proactive performance testing country. The study shows great variation Bouffenie.
“If companies wish to retain both
and monitoring of their digital services
to ensure that, even at peak times,
downtime does not occur,” added Carey.
‘Virtual’ subs largely pleased
with service value
According to analyst firm The Diffusion
Group (TDG), although virtual pay-TV
services are immature and years away
from ‘five-9’ reliability, subscribers
overwhelmingly consider service value to
be very solid.
In TDG’s Q2 Benchmarking the
Connected Consumer project – a survey
of more than 2,000 US adult broadband
users – less than 5% of ABUs were using
a live streaming pay-TV service like
Sling TV or DirecTV Now. Among these
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Strategy Analytics has reviewed the
are for the most part a value play, one