• by Wayne Friedman , January 28, 2014

Increasingly, both advertising supported video-on-demand (VOD) services and subscription video-on-demand services can claim some victories among consumers.

Some 56% of consumers say they have used a VOD service -- including a TV Everywhere service -- versus 41% when it comes to SVOD services, like Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime, per a new study from GfK’s Media and Entertainment unit.

But SVOD offers “better” satisfaction -- at 44% of those who have used both VOD and SVOD. Other data: 27% say VOD is better; 29% say both are equal.

Drilling down further, GfK says those who use VOD at least once a week like it much better -- 43% versus 30% for streaming. VOD is also perceived as being equal to Netflix and similar services when it comes to “viewing choices”: 57% cite VOD as having “excellent” or “very good” variety, versus 55% for paid streaming.

David Tice, senior vice president of GfK Media and Entertainment, states that while consumers are open to considering alternatives to SVOD, there is a lack of education, perhaps from less marketing concerning VOD.

Although TV Everywhere apps/services have been slow to roll out among many TV programmers/networks, satisfaction levels are gaining for those who use these services.

Among users of TV Everywhere in pay-TV homes, 28% feel more satisfied with their pay-TV service -- an improvement over the 24% rate of a year ago -- and 33% are less likely to change pay-TV providers, up from 25% last year.

The survey’s results were based on interviews with 1,007 persons ages 13 to 64 in pay-TV homes.

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