Thursday, February 7, 2019

How Big an Opportunity for New Content Aggregators?

A survey of consumers in the United States, United Kingdom and Brazil suggests they are receptive to any content provider that could supply most of the programming they want, and might be willing to spend more money to get such a service.

The good news is that there might be an opening in the market for an aggregator that could do so. The bad news is that it likely is impossible for any provider to do so. Content rights are so fragmented it is extremely doubtful any single provider could aggregate most of it.

On the other hand, the survey, by Vanson Bourne, and sponsored by Amdocs, also suggests there could be new opportunity for any supplier able to do a better job of bundling available content.

Perhaps the biggest unknown is whether consumers actually are willing to spend significantly more than they do at present to get “all” or “most” of their desired content. Most consumers likely would be unwilling to spend what it would take to aggregate “all” desired programming, under any circumstances.

The practical challenges is to assemble a package that is “good enough,” not “best,” as consumers will pay for “good enough,” and highly unlikely to pay for a service that provided nearly all desired content.


Even consumers who buy four or more discrete video services say there still is desired content they cannot watch.

Respondents suggested that, to view all of the content they want to watch on a regular basis, they would need to pay almost 50 percent more (about $30 a month) than they're currently spending, meaning a total of $126.59 per month or over $1,500 per year.

That probably should not be taken to mean they would spend that much; rather that this is what they would have to spend, at the moment, to get all of their preferred content.

The results might suggest to some that consumers are willing to spend significantly more than they presently do on video entertainment, even if cord cutting trends suggest consumers want to pay less than they already do, even if there are content limitations.

Others might suggest there is some additional demand, especially for providers that can package more of the desired content into a single service.

The study--not surprisingly--found that 68 percent of U.S. viewers aren't satisfied with the range of TV and video content they currently have, despite spending an average of $85.71 per month on TV, movie and video subscription services per household.

It also is worth noting that 58 percent of respondents with access to a subscription service say they also do not pay for at least one of those services.  

Some 70 percent of U.S. respondents stated that they would be prepared to pay for a single provider that could package all of their preferred content into a dedicated service bundle. Whether that is possible is the issue.

Some 69 percent of consumers said that they would be happy to switch content providers if such a single package were available.

The typical household spending about $72 a month on video subscriptions, the study suggests.

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