Commentary
Are TV Consumers Looking For One Easy Way To Get To All Their Networks, Content?
- by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 26, 2022
Although U.S. consumers of TV content continue to abandon traditional pay TV services, those same consumers are also find replacements that may have similar ease to a single-source service.
When asked what the first source is that respondents turn to when powering on their TV sets, Hub Entertainment Research says …
Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.
An interesting subject, Wayne. a typical "pay TV" subscriber has acces to something like 190-200 channels and some even more, but watches only 12 of these per week and, over longer periods of time this figure expands to about 20-25 channels. This fairly wide degree of sampling is only possible because of the ease of doing so---one merely switches back and forth---or is given a channel number to check out by a family member or friend who recommends it---and it's done---no problemo. With streaming, as we know, its an app by app proceess and it's not as easy as one might think to determine what viewing options might be be available per app.
The basic assumption that streaming subs knows exactly what they want to watch every time they turn to their TV- is simply not the case. This is especially true for cord cutters who once had it easy with their cable or satellite distribution service bundle So, we are now starting to see this complaint being voiced in more and more studies---the lack of an easy way to select content not only per app---but across apps---just like the good old days with "pay TV". It's a real issue and is actually causing some streaming subs to return to "pay TV" ---though sometimes this is also a function of cable systems selling consumers bundles of services---internet access, telephone service, etc. at a discount.