Study: OTT, TV Everywhere to Supplement Pay-TV Services

Though over-the-top (OTT) content—like Netflix, Hulu and Crackle—has gained significant traction in the online TV space, a recent study revealed that, for a vast majority of customers, the newer method of content delivery doesn’t replace traditional pay-TV services outright but, rather, supplements them.According to Hub Entertainment Research, 90 percent of customers who have broadband services are still paying for traditional television despite the fact that they might be watching less of it thanks to OTT providers, which outpace traditional providers in terms of perceived value.

“Despite all the buzz around a cord-cutting revolution, the numbers continue to suggest that viewers are using online sources to complement their pay-TV subscription more than replace it,” said Jon Giegengack of Hub Entertainment. “The bigger risk for traditional TV carriers and networks is in falling too far behind online providers when it comes to easy, flexible ways for consumers to find and view the TV content they want.”

Other key findings of the research include:

  • The average pay-TV subscriber leverages about two OTT sources, usually Netflix and Hulu.
  • Customers who use TV Everywhere (TVE) say they are happier with their television providers than those who do not. The research indicates that 78 percent of TVE users plan to stay with their provider next year, whereas somewhat fewer, or 67 percent, of those who don’t use TVE also intend to remain with their provider.
  • Those who watch OTT or TVE content do their viewing on 2.7 devices, a 17 percent increase from last year.
  • Only 40 percent of millennials (18- to 34-year-olds) say that traditional television is their No. 1 source for programming.

Despite the fact that a vast majority of OTT consumers still subscribe to pay-TV services, it seems that number could very well decrease in the future as the population ages. The device- and delivery-system-agnostic generation cares most about convenience, and traditional television is the most lacking of all content-delivery media in that attribute.