Research conducted by Screen Digest for Microsoft suggests that there is a target audience of around 230 million people that might consider buying into IPTV or another pay TV service in seven top TV countries, and the software giant reckons that 75 million of them say they would switch TV suppliers if they have the right features and channels, especially those features, such as the DVR, which help people get back control of viewing times in their busy lives.
Well it’s not exactly rocket science but the point of phoning 5,000 TV literate consumers in 7 countries is to establish for Microsoft’s IPTV operators that dropping price is not the only way to attract customers for their shiny new IPTV services. The other options are to make the service work the way consumers like it and to buy in the right content.
On the content side this can’t exactly have been a secret, given that bartering of live sports rights have formed the basis of pay TV wars for the past 20 years at least.
But it is true that in US surveys, notably those carried out by Parks Associates, the main reason for buying into a triple play bundle has usually involved the saving of $20 or more per month, and that’s perhaps what Microsoft was trying to get away from.
Screen Digest concluded that more than 60% of consumers in seven developed countries would consider switching TV service providers to obtain the features and content they want, at current market prices or higher.
The research was a combination of online and phone surveys of 5,000 ‘entertainment-oriented’ consumers in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
An additional 2,000 surveys were conducted in urban China and India. When these countries are included, the global audience for advanced TV services increases to 380 million, with 200 million willing to switch and pay for a new TV service if it does the right things.
Consumers were also allowed to create their ‘ideal’ TV service from a number of different features. Consumers created and are willing to pay for lifestyle-based packages, rather than simply price and channels. Those lifestyle packages range from basic TV control and management, to family-oriented packages, to packages that enable communications, commerce and connections between the TV, PC and mobile devices. Over 50% of consumers willing to pay for new TV services said they would like these advanced capabilities beyond basic TV control and management.
The people most likely to switch are those which are time constrained with 43% actually watching less TV than the average household. So it’s not the people that already watch an inordinate amount of TV that telcos should target, it’s the people that are currently too busy to watch the programs they prefer.
The report also suggests that China and India have the highest percentage of high-potential IPTV households, but the penetration of broadband lines in these two countries as a percentage of total households is too low right now, so Screen Digest is suggesting that a bundle of TV-plus-phone package, without the internet access is the right way to go in these countries or even TV only sales.