Nearly 50% of U.S. OTT TV subscribers have more than one subscription

Nearly 50% of OTT video subscribers have more than one service subscription

New Parks Associates research shows that 31% of U.S. broadband households have multiple OTT service subscriptions, which is nearly one-half of the 63% of U.S. broadband households subscribing to at least one OTT service. Parks Associates will present new connected entertainment research at CES® 2017 in January. The international firm will host the 11th-annual CONNECTIONS™ Summit: IoT and the Smart Home on January 5 at the Venetian Hotel, Level 4, Marcello 4405, in Las Vegas, which focuses on the best business models and value propositions in the IoT, the smart home, and connected and mobile CE and services. The IoT firm will also be at Booth #41073 in Sands A-D throughout CES 2017.

“Parks Associates, through our OTT Video Market Tracker service, has identified the service-stacking phenomenon as an important step in the growth of the U.S. OTT video services marketplace,” said Brett Sappington, Senior Director of Research, Parks Associates. “Consumer willingness to subscribe to multiple services provides the consumer-paid revenues necessary for continued industry growth.”

The most popular service stack is Netflix and Amazon Video—12% of all U.S. broadband households have this combination.

“There are service stackers willing to experiment with different OTT combinations as new services arise,” Sappington said. “The regular release of high-quality original content, such as The Grand Tour (Amazon) and Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life (Netflix), ensures the large OTT players will remain a core, consistent subscription among service-stacking households.”

Netflix has yet to announce its plans for CES 2017, but the streaming giant could roll out an offline viewing mode, which has been a long-rumored addition. At CES 2016, the OTT leader expanded its global service and launched in almost every country in the world.

Amazon, which recently launched a standalone streaming music service, is working to tie its online services to its expanding ecosystem of connected home products, including the Echo.

“The average spending on subscription OTT video has increased over the past four years, with a notable jump in 2016,” said Glenn Hower, SeniorAnalyst, Parks Associates. “The average monthly spend of $7.95 on subscription OTT video services is remarkably close to the $7.99 pricing of the lowest tiers of service for Netflix and Hulu, indicating that consumer expectations for U.S. market pricing has been set by Hulu and Netflix.”

Additional research from Parks Associates’ OTT Video Market Tracker shows:

• U.S. consumers pay an average of $29 per month for incremental video-related entertainment beyond pay TV.
• U.S. broadband households spent only $0.80 per month buying video downloads.
• The movie industry saw consumers spend an average of $9.32 per month buying movie tickets for the cinema.
• Online TV services and live broadcasts of linear channels will be a common theme in 2017, with several new services scheduled to launch, including options from Hulu and YouTube.