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Research: Pay TV customers will cut existing bills before cutting cords

Robert Andrews — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:19:48 +0000

Get set for some disruption in the pay TV market in 2013. The proportion of customers who change service is set to double over the next year, research says.

The Oliver & Ohlbaum media strategy agency shows how 10.3 percent of surveyed pay TV subscribers in the UK plan to change their service over the next year…

That is twice as many people who said they would change in 2013 — and also more than the proportion of people who actually did so.

Where will they go? Whilst it might be tempting to look for evidence of widespread “cord cutting”, that is not what we see here…

Instead, most of those who plan to change say they will simply remove paid channels from their existing package. Channel additions by consumers look set to shrink markedly next year. And the numbers who plan to switch down to Freeview terrestrial TV are rising.

In all, this likely points to a consumer response to worsening economic times, with disposable income relative to many consumer goods shrinking, rather than the effect of new internet TV services.

The proportion of consumers who plan to switch from pay TV to on-demand services is up from last year, but only by one percent.

A minority, 16 percent, of those surveyed said they were likely to buy a box for YouView — the UK hybrid terrestrial and internet TV joint venture — in the next year.

But don’t rule out internet TV growth. Amongst those who do subscribe to internet video services, behaviour change is profound. Forty-five percent of Netflix UK and Lovefilm Instant subscribers say they have reduced their pay-TV subscriptions, though many of them are actually watching more linear TV…

Oliver & Ohlbaum’s survey found 33 percent of households already have a connected TV device other than that from a pay TV provider. Samsung’s models top the list of connected TV models that most frequently are actually connected.

Forecast: Internet ad spend will outstrip all print in 2015

Robert Andrews — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 00:01:31 +0000

2015 is the year when internet advertising spend will overtake combined newspaper and magazine ad spend globally, according to ad group ZenithOptimedia’s latest forecast.

That mark has already been passed in some countries, but not on a worldwide basis.

The group reckons the internet attracted 15.2 percent more ad dollars globally in 2012, though total cross-media ad spend grew only 3.3 percent.

ZenithOptimedia reckons internet ad spend will growth at 14 to 15 percent per year going forward and will be taking 23.4 percent of all advertising money in the world by 2015.

By that time, online display ad spend will be on the cusp of overtaking search ad spend for the first time.

This is not purely a digital growth story — print ad spend has been declining. But the worst of the cliff-drop, seen at the height of the 2008/09 downturn, has bottomed out, leaving more modest print cuts going forward, ZenithOptimedia projects.

Television remains the most lucrative advertising medium.

Forecast: Internet will take more than a fifth of ad dollars by 2014

Robert Andrews — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 23:00:33 +0000

The internet will attract 16 percent more advertising dollars through 2013, while newspapers and magazines will lose two percent of their ad money, according to ZenithOptimedia’s latest forecast.

The ad firm reckons global online advertising will comprise 21.4 percent of the whole by 2014 – up from 16 percent in 2011.

Within internet ads, ZenithOptimedia sees social media and video pushing a 20 percent growth in display ad sales, compared with a 14 percent boost to paid search ads.

The former is forecast to make up 40 percent of online ad sales by 2014.