Study: Users Willing To Pay For TV Everywhere

by Wayne Friedman , July 15, 2010

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Good news for those TV Everywhere cable proponents: Not only do consumers seem to like the idea, they may even pay extra for it. A new study from The Diffusion Group says 60% of adult broadband users -- 95 million consumers -- are "enthusiastic" about TV Everywhere. More interesting: 34% -- 54 million consumers -- are willing to pay at least $5 extra per month for those services.

The study went further, saying that about 33% of consumers would pay about $10 extra a month, and 20% would pay more than $15 per month.

"Current TVE-type offerings remain relatively fledgling services with little in the way of compelling content," says Michael Greeson, founding partner of The Diffusion Group and author of the new report.

Greeson says that's expected of a new service, and probably feeds "operator belief that these services should be viewed as a free value-added service to existing residential TV subscribers as opposed to a new service capable of generating additional revenue."

The study says it expects that TV Everywhere providers will likely "pull a Hulu," meaning that it will provide free access to TV Everywhere offerings (through existing monthly cable deals), but eventually add a new charge once TV Everywhere content grows and consumer demand increases. Hulu recently announced it was adding a pay-component to its free premium TV programs.

Cable operators and TV content providers have been concerned about the free access of TV shows online -- shows that could compete with traditional carriage through their monthly cable packages sold to consumers.

TV Everywhere is an attempt to keep consumers paying for those packages by demanding authentication of their cable or satellite programming deals, which would allow them to watch TV shows online.

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2 comments about "Study: Users Willing To Pay For TV Everywhere".

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Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, July 15, 2010 at 6:24 p.m.
What people say they'll do and what they actually do are two different things. Hulu Plus seems a threat to cable, so cable needs to rethink the way they package channels. Twenty-somethings tell me that they'd rather get their scripted and reality shows for $10 a month instead of $50 a month for cable. Live news does not interest them (they have the Internet) and sports is just an excuse to go to a bar.
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John Grono from GAP Research, July 16, 2010 at 9:22 a.m.

Good point Douglas. Around 15 years ago there was some research done here in Australia and it was something like 90+% of people would not pay a toll on a freeway and would take the older alternate routes.

A decade or two later they are proliferating and nearly every car has an electronic toll tag.