• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, March 9, 2023

While the eight leading video streaming services have brand awareness of over 90%, far fewer viewers are able to articulate brand propositions for these services, according to Hub Entertainment Research’s latest annual Evolution of Video Branding survey. 

When asked how confident they are that they could explain what each platform does best, or how it’s different from the others, Netflix fared best, with 79% of U.S. consumers surveyed expressing such confidence. 

Runner-up Amazon Prime Video was 10 percentage points lower (69%), followed by Disney Disney+ (67%), HBO Max (63%) and Hulu (62%). 

Paramount+ (50%), Apple TV+ (46%) and Discovery+ (41%) came in at the bottom. 

Hub interviewed 2,400 consumers ages 16 to 74 who have broadband and watch at least one hour of TV per week. 

“In the end, consumers are choosing among a well-known set of brands without a clear understanding of what differentiates them,” sums up the report. 

Without such an overall sense of a brand, consumers’ choices of services are heavily driven by specific content and the comfortable familiarity borne of content franchises. 

Forty-one percent report having signed up for a service in the past year to watch a specific show — up from 36% and 35% in Hub’s 2022 and 2021 surveys, respectively. 

Young viewers and those with children in the household are even more likely to exhibit this behavior. Among those 16 to 34, 57% have signed up due to a specific show, versus 30% of those 35 and older. Among those with kids at home, 54% have done this, versus 34% of those without kids.

As for the power of franchises, 72% of younger viewers and 64% of older ones said they would be more likely to watch a new show based on a movie they liked, and the same basic pattern held up in regard to shows based on familiar books, characters or video games (though video games resonated much more with younger than older respondents). 

Forty percent of all respondents said they’d be more likely to watch a new show based on the Marvel universe — the highest of the 10 brands tested. 

The next three brands that would most influence watching a new, related show were broadcast TV procedurals that already have successful spinoffs. 

“Successful IP creates a ‘discovery chain’ that generates new viewers, even across platforms,” observes Hub. 

Another prime example: 29% of respondents reported having watched the original “Yellowstone” series, and among those, 70% said they’ve watched at least one episode of one of that series’ spinoffs or other series created by Taylor Sheridan.