Who pays for TV?
That’s the question that digital media company NAGRAM, in partnership with TV research firm Ampere Analysis, answers in “Television Tribes,” a study on consumer behavior released this week. [1]
Surveying TV watchers across 10 countries, the authors of the study identified five consumer types, which they call “television tribes,” and analyzed the opportunities they present for pay-TV operators:
Content Connoisseurs — a young, affluent, and tech-savvy early adopter group that wants everything on demand and is willing to pay for it. Also the most likely to churn.
Broadcast Bingers — a low-spending group best entertained when binge watching box sets.
Digitally Detached — an older generation, harder to reach, and least likely to spend money on pay-TV content.
TV Traditionalists — a middle-aged group of linear TV consumers most interested in the big screen, and particularly in sports.
Super Spenders — linear TV experts with money to spend to have full bundle access to content.
While operators need to consider all consumer types, the study suggests, they should pay special attention to content connoisseurs.
Why? For one, they comprise the fastest-growing consumer group. Moreover, their content habits differ significantly from the other tribes.
According to the study, nearly 80 percent of content connoisseurs primarily watch TV and films through online video platforms. In the next five years, they report, they’ll stop watching linear TV — in other words, cable — altogether.
The Angle:
As a rising and influential generation of consumers starts to demonstrate a clear preference, IBM’s Director and Global Industry CMO for Telecom, Media and Entertainment Rich Michos said, businesses need to adapt.
“Providers have to be sensitive to this demographic because they’re the people that are going to continuously drive usage,” Michos said. “Their usage is unpredictable but it’s constant.”
How can pay-TV operators hold on to content connoisseurs ? The answer, said NAGRA’s Ivan Verbesselt, is fairly straightforward. They have to transition even faster to offer quality streaming TV and to develop the flexibility to “meet evolving and diverse content consumption needs.”
Only by creating living networks, which leverage AI and cloud technology to handle fluctuating demand, can operators rise to that task. Content connoisseurs expect nothing less.
Learn more about how IBM’s AI and cloud solutions can help businesses reinvent their networks.
