Providing Market Intelligence for 40 Years

In The News

OTT churn increases in US during pandemic

According to Parks Associates, an increasing number of US broadband households cancelled at least one OTT subscription in the early part of the year, with a significant number also utilising the free trials offered by streamers during the coronavirus pandemic.

More than two in five households have tried out an OTT service’s free trial during the crisis, with 8% trialling four or more.

Of households that signed up to a service during the pandemic, 49% subscribed to Disney+ and 27% subscribed to Apple TV+ – the two best performers.

The report also raises questions about whether subscribers will keep these services with shelter-in-place rules being relaxed, in spite of a growing number of COVID-19 cases in many states. It notes that maintaining subscribers may be difficult for platforms which rely on original programming – much of which will have been affected by delays to production.

Steve Nason, research director at Parks Associates, said: “We are seeing a record number of consumers experiment with new OTT services as a result of the COVID-19 crisis and the shifts in strategy in the industry.OTT services are offering extended free trials to build up engagement, and 8% of US broadband households report they have subscribed to at least one new OTT service since the COVID-19 crisis began.

“The industry is working on new hybrid content strategies as a result of production halts. Major players like AT&T for Warner Brothers and Comcast for Universal Studios are greatly concerned about the delays in content production on the launches of new services, like HBO Max and Peacock. Free trials will bring in new subscribers at the launch, and roughly seven in ten have subscribed to at least one OTT service they have trialed. OTT services need to be creative in building an engaging service, but during this time of heavy video consumption, OTT services have the opportunity like never before to win over new video consumers and retain them as long-term subscribers.”

From the article "OTT churn increases in US during pandemic" by Jonathan Easton.

Previously In The News

TLC Presents New 4K TV With Roku OS

Last year, research firm Parks Associates said that Amazon, Apple, Google and Roku accounted 86 percent of streaming devices sold in 2014. Moreover, the firm estimates that 86 million streaming media...

Media Industry – Future of Pay TV In An OTT Landscape Pt.2 – Ericsson

Earlier this year, Parks Associates published a study highlighting that the number of paid OTT video subscriptions in Europe is still lagging behind the U.S. For instance, while 64 percent of U.S. bro...

Are There Lessons in Go90’s Failure for Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Billion-Dollar Streaming Startup?

There was a lot to like about the originals on Go90, and my sense from using the service was that the programming wasn’t the problem. Peter Berg’s docuseries QB1 about elite high school quarterbacks i...

Sprint Launches New Unlimited Freedom Plan With Unlimited Data, Talk And Text

Wireless data usage is growing steadily from 2015 to 2016 as consumers shift data-heavy activities from desktop to mobile. According to Parks Associates’ latest survey data, average monthly wireless d...