Consumers are spending more time on online home entertainment

According to a new study from consultancy firm Deloitte, 84% of consumers say they are spending more time on online entertainment in the home, and less time on in-person entertainment outside the home. In fact, compared with six months ago, nearly half of consumers are spending more time on online entertainment.

If the pandemic has accelerated online entertainment, streaming video on-demand has certainly enjoyed a boom, with an estimated 21% boost in consumer spending on subscriptions in the first half of 2021, according to the “Digital Media Trends Fall Pulse Survey”.

“While SVOD players seek subscriber growth and reckon with churn, consumers are still guided by cost and content. But people — especially younger generations — are managing costs by adopting ad-supported options, looking for discounts and bundles, and moving on and off services to meet their content needs. For streaming video providers, keeping these subscribers is harder than ever,”  the report says.

Compared to six months ago, consumers across generations have been spending more time watching TV and browsing the internet, but Millennials and Generation Z continue to show differences in adoption and use of digital entertainment. Nineteen months into the pandemic, Boomers and Generation X still rank watching TV shows or movies at home as their favorite entertainment activity.

The survey also revealed that 84% of respondents now pay for a SVOD service, and the average household has four subscriptions — figures that have remained largely unchanged over the past year. There are a handful of top-tier SVOD services that people tend to hold on to, while the rest are added and cancelled more frequently.

“Although more premium and ad-supported services have launched, the streaming video landscape has not changed much since the start of 2021. People still prioritize new original content, a broad content library, and a low enough cost to subscribe. But they are getting better at developing strategies to optimize costs and content. For providers seeking to retain them, the overall churn rate — the number of people who have cancelled, or both added and cancelled, a paid SVOD service— has remained stable at about 38%, although it varies from service to service,”  the report said.