Live TV Still Reigns Supreme Across Globe

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HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND—OTT might be one of the buzz words in the industry, but live TV is still the people’s champ, according to a recent study completed by Futuresource. The latest report from its “Living with Digital” consumer research study showed that 65 percent of people in the U.S., Canada, England, France, Germany and Australia still go with live TV for their primary viewing.

Despite a number of people dropping pay-TV services because of costs for alternative content sources like OTT, many consumers around the world are continuing to support premium tier pay-TV subscriptions. A third of respondents still using pay-TV subscribe to movie packages, and 40 percent do the same for sports; the U.S. numbers are as high as 57 percent for sports packages. Of the countries polled, France was pay-TV’s biggest supporter with 75 percent of its respondents still subscribing, with the lowest numbers coming from the U.S. and U.K., both of which sit at 59 percent.

OTT numbers are growing, however. Currently, 40 percent of U.S. respondents and 20 percent from the U.K. subscribe to Netflix. Amazon Prime also continues to rise with 23 percent in the U.S. and 10 percent in the U.K. Contributing to that growth is the emergence of connected TVs, with a third of respondents saying they own a connected TV, with 69 percent accessing video or music on it at least once a week, up from 63 percent in the previous study.

It is also shown that video is dominating the market, with 83 percent of respondents consuming all video content formats. Specifically, half of 16-25 year olds use online and connected TVs to view subscription on demand video.

The report also deals with the emergence of paid-for streaming music. To see the full report, click here.