North American Consumers Prefer 20 Channels, at $28 to $29 a Month, Tivo Finds

When they are able to buy channels a la carte, U.S. consumers will pay about $29 a month for 20 favorite channels, while Canadians will pay $28 a month for their 20 favorite channels, TiVo’s latest report on video finds. And though it is only a one-quarter change, the price consumes in the United States and Canada are willing to pay dropped 12 percent.

	Q4 2016	Q3 2016	Quarterly Change
Price for Top 20 Channels - United States	$28.87	$32.92	- 12.3% q/q
Price for Top 20 Channels - Canada	$28.16	$32.00	- 12.0% q/q

In terms of specific genres, consumers say they watched 18 percent fewer National Football League games in 2016, compared to 2015, for a variety of reported reasons, including games that were not as interesting, too many commercials, but also 11 percent who said political issues were a turn off.

Use of “TV Everywhere” features (TVE) grew about nine percent in 2016, year over year, including viewing on PCs, tablets or smartphones.

Linear video is used by 83 percent of respondents. Of the 17 percent not buying, 20 percent reported cutting service over the last year. It is important to remember that is a “gross” figure, not a “net’ figure that offsets account closures with new accounts added. In most recent years, the net change has been less than one percent.

Of stated objections, 80 percent of customers abandoning service said the service was too expensive. Some 48 percent said they were using a streaming service, Tivo said.

Source: Tivo

Content packagers are likely quite right to assume that a shift to a la carte buying would disrupt the existing linear business. Some 64 percent of respondents suggested the ability to buy only channels they wanted would be a new reason to abandon linear service.

Also, in contrast to customer satisfaction surveys that show continuing unhappiness with video services, 78 percent of respondents reported they are “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with their service, while the number of respondents claiming “poor service” has declined 11 percent over the last two years.

Service reductions (cord shaving) also is happening. Some 52 percent said they

“reduced” levels of service in some way, such as reducing buying of premium channels, or reducing the number of outlets in the home.