HOW MANY STREAMING SERVICES THE US CONSUMER COULD STACK?

According to the TV Switching Study released by NPD, exclusive content housed on SVOD platforms are the main driver of engagement, indicated to be over 25% on behalf of viewers. The availability has led to consumers' desire to purchase additional serivce, leading to consumers accumulating an average of seven streaming services in total. “By and large, consumers want the ability to customize their viewing experience, bundling both paid and free services that provide them with the content they want, when they want it,” said John Buffone, executive director, industry analyst within NPD’s Connected Intelligence practice.

The analyzer tracked changes in the way US consumers view and buy digital content through an online survey of more than 5,000 US consumers from 14-22 October. “Amidst Covid-related content production challenges, viewers are increasing the number of streaming services they use, as they seek to find content that captures their interest,” Buffone said.

The number of SVOD users, which increased to 21% in October 2020 compared with 14% in April are decreasing engagement or canceling subscriptions following the discovery of a service that offers features and content that is more intriguing to them. “Competition will become an even greater challenge for services,” Buffone said. “Both now, as viewers try more options and later as production ramps up and each service gets new programming.”

The report also found that free streaming services saw growth from 39% of viewers in April to 47% in October as consumers used such offerings to supplement SVOD services. While nearly all free streaming services experienced lower churn than average, as consumers did not have to subscribe to these platforms, they also experienced lower engagement rates. Acording to NPD, the services are obligated to differentiate content array from risk declining user engagement.