Digitalsmiths: 10% of Pay TV Users Could Switch or Cancel Service

Pay-TV providers are missing the mark when it comes to the features and functionality current digital video network technology offers, according to the latest quarterly report on media and entertainment industry trends from TiVo’s Digitalsmiths.

Over one in ten respondents (10.8%) to Digitalsmiths’ latest quarterly consumer survey could potentially leave their current cable or satellite pay-TV service provider over the next six months, researchers found. 6.7% said they plan to change providers over this period, while 4.2% said they plan to cut their service altogether or switch to a third-party app, according to Digitalsmiths’, “Q4 2013 Video Trends Report.” Added to this, another 32.1% can be considered “on-the-fence,” indicating “maybe” when asked if they intended to change or switch providers or cut their current pay-TV service, which brings to 43% the percentage who “could be considered ‘at-risk’ subscribers,” Digitalsmiths notes. Other key takeaways from Digitalsmiths’ latest quarterly report include:

• Almost one-third (30.9 percent) of consumers surveyed are overwhelmed by the number of channels offered to them
• 88.2 percent watch the same channels over and over again
• 72.8% do not order movies from their Pay-TV providers’ VOD offerings. However, 45.3% of respondents are using subscription OTT services such as Netflix and Hulu
• 53.2% of respondents would like to see recommendations of video content within their channel guide

[March 11]