Accenture: 25% of Consumers Plan to Purchase Connected TV Within a Year

Viewing TV programming over the Internet is growing, as is demand for more devices and more online content. And consumers are increasingly willing to pay for better access to content, which is reshaping the landscape of the media and entertainment industries, according to the fourth annual multinational “Accenture Digital Consumer Survey.”

Accenture surveyed 23,000 consumers in 23 countries. According to Accenture’s findings, 25 percent of respondents indicated the intention to purchase a connected TV over the next 12 months. Another 11 percent said they intend to replace an existing connected TV, and 12 percent said they plan to purchase a tablet, “expanding the market of addressable screens even further,” Accenture highlights in a press release.

“If consumers act on these intentions, it will represent remarkable growth in the addressable market for online video,” Gavin Mann, Accenture’s global broadcast industry lead, was quoted as saying. “This rapid digital expansion is fostering a new era of personalized TV experiences with the number of video-centric connected devices predicted to surpass the world’s population by 2017.”

Nearly half (44 percent) of all respondents are watching full-length movies and TV shows over the Internet daily, while 39 percent are doing so weekly, Accenture’s research reveals. That’s despite 86 percent reporting streaming interruptions and 71 percent noting considerable slowdowns in viewing. Accenture also found that consumers would prefer seamless bundling of their online video services. That was expressed when they selected Google, Apple and Samsung, in that order, as a preferred non-traditional broadcaster capable of delivering Pay-TV, VOD and Catch-up TV even though those aren’t core capacities of any of those companies at present, Accenture noted.