NEWTON CENTRE, MASS.: It’s not too surprising that two-thirds of American pay television subscribers would switch providers for a 20-percent discount. The figures comes via research by the folks at Strategy Analytics. Strategy says cable customers reported a higher willingness to move than telcoTV customers. While it didn’t indicate why--Strategy was launched by a phone exec--one reason could very well be that telcoTV/IPTV provision is still relatively new. All the same, 33 percent of those customers said they’d jump ship for a 20 percent discount.
A total of 856 pay TV subscribers were surveyed. Around 70 percent reported being either “somewhat” or “very” satisfied with their current service, though there was disparity among platform types. Telco/IPTV received a 95 percent approval rating, while satellite received 78 percent and cable, 67 percent. Only 22 percent of respondents felt they were getting “value for money” exceeding their expectations.
“The value-for-money result was perhaps the most important finding of this study,” said Ben Piper, director of the Strategy Analytics Multiplay Market Dynamics service. “It underscores a trend we have been seeing for the past 18 months: a growing number of customers are beginning to question the value of a “traditional” pay TV subscription in light of expanded “over-the-top” offerings, such as Hulu and Netflix.”
