Brightcove commissions study of pay and OTT TV in Taiwan

Monday, October 29th, 2018
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Brightcove Commissions Pay TV and OTT TV Study in Taiwan

  • Study finds 80% of viewers would sign up for OTT TV through pay TV operators

SINGAPORE — Brightcove Inc. (NASDAQ: BCOV), the leading global provider of cloud services for video, today announced findings from its market study, Taiwan OTT Television Research Report 2018, in partnership with YouGov, an international data and analytics group, and Cleeng, the leading video eCommerce platform.

Based on an online survey with 950 respondents, the study highlighted trends in video consumption, preferences towards cable TV and OTT TV services, motivators that drive pay TV and OTT TV adoption, and payment preferences in Taiwan.

With 6.5 million subscribers, Taiwan is one of the markets with the highest pay TV penetration rates in Asia. The research uncovered that the perceived value of pay TV versus OTT is fundamentally different. The majority of consumers report they originally subscribed to their Pay TV service for a wide range of channels, compared to OTT, where users report originally joining for specific content. Up to 80 percent of viewers in Taiwan would consider signing up for OTT services, if offered via their pay TV operators. Only 20 percent of viewers are currently subscribed to OTT TV services. When it comes to payment preferences, for both pay TV and OTT consumer want more flexibility to cancel their subscription at any time.

Ben Morrell, Vice President, Asia at Brightcove said, “With pay TV businesses elsewhere in Asia continuing to lose subscribers, this research suggests the high potential of OTT TV becoming a successful extension to the pay TV business in Taiwan. Providing a robust library of content at attractive price points, with the flexibility to cancel anytime seems like the right combination that both pay TV and OTT TV service providers need to get right. Brightcove is actively playing an integral part of the expansion of television online across Asia and globally, with hundreds of media companies using our platform. Thus, we have the insights into how media companies are solving common problems today that will impact their future plans.”

Summary of the research:

Pay TV research findings

  • Forty-three percent are current pay TV subscribers in Taiwan. Sixty-eight percent stated the main reason for signing up for pay TV was to gain access to a wide range of channels, while 24 percent said that pay TV was bundled with their mobile phone, fixed and internet services.
  • Twenty-two percent are lapsed pay TV subscribers. The reasons for lapsing include having no time to watch (48 percent), too many channels that goes unwatched (40 percent), and pay TV service was too expensive (35 percent).
  • Forty-four percent of respondents stated they would subscribe to an OTT service if offered by their pay TV provider, while 37 percent indicated maybe. This indicates a potentially sizeable market for OTT at 80 percent, with the latter having the potential to convert to customers.

OTT TV research findings

  • Twenty percent stated that they currently subscribe to an OTT TV service, with the driver being access to specific content, being able to trial the service, and taking advantage of special service promotions.
  • Twenty percent indicated that they had lapsed their OTT TV subscription, stating the reasons being lack of specific content, lack of value and pricing that was simply too expensive.
  • Fifty-nine percent stated that they have never subscribed to an OTT TV service. The reasons for not subscribing was that viewers were satisfied with content shown on free to air TV channels and saw no value to signing up to an OTT TV service.