Gap Between OTT and Traditional Pay-TV Services Continues to Grow, According to Parks Associates

New research reveals 82% of US broadband households subscribe to at least one OTT service and 58% subscribe to a traditional pay-TV service

Parks Associates announced the release of its latest Consumer Insights Dashboard, a new ongoing service that analyzes the firm’s quarterly surveys of 10,000 US broadband households to track consumer adoption of home services, including home internet, pay-TV, and mobile services. The firm’s Video Services Dashboard reveals 82% of US broadband households subscribe to at least one OTT service, up six points year-over-year, while 58% subscribe to a traditional pay-TV service, down four points year-over-year.

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“The steady rise in online pay-TV adoption has made up for some of the significant drops in traditional pay TV,” said Steve Nason, Research Director, Parks Associates. “Video consumers are looking to online pay-TV services, either from a traditional provider or vMVPD, to offer a similar viewing experience and content offering to traditional pay TV but at a lower price point. However, online pay-TV providers, who don’t typically generate content on their own, have had trouble stabilizing subscriber costs as content fees continue to rise.”

The research firm reports 25% of US broadband households subscribe to a TV service offering a bundle of live channels via an online provider, including 13% who have both traditional and online pay-TV services. Adoption of vMVPDs, core online pay-TV services that offer bundles of live channels accessible via third-party connected devices, increased four percentage points to 18% in Q1 2021. As Cord-Cutters or Cord-Nevers look for a more live/linear video viewing experience online, vMVPD service uptake has picked up.

“The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated many existing trends in the video services market,” Nason said. “Moving forward, consumer preferences will continue to shift online as video viewers perceive these services to be less costly, more convenient, and more aligned with how they want to consume video programming.”

Parks Associates presents and analyzes the firm’s latest OTT video consumer data at today’s virtual session “Impact of Connected Devices on the Video Experience,” at 12:30 PM CT, as part of the fourth annual Future of Video conference. The session features executives from Paramount+, 3SS (3 Screen Solutions), WarnerMedia, Universal Electronics Inc., Brightcove, ViacomCBS, and Everise. Future of Video sponsors are Everise, Symphony MediaAI, Deltatre, Brightcove, Future Today, Bitmovin, and Metrological.

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