VIDEO Content discovery a top video pain point for consumers: TiVo

The top ways consumers are finding out about new TV shows or movies continues to be through commercials or ads that run during other shows, and by word of mouth. (Getty Images)

By: Bevin Fletcher, March 1, 2023 Source: Fierce Video

The number of video services consumers are tapping to fill their entertainment needs continues to climb, and while price remains an important factor, a bigger pain point for users is content discovery amid a seemingly ever-growing array of options, according to TiVo’s Q4 Video Trends report.

The average number of video sources consumers use reached nearly 12 (TiVo’s official number is 11.6) in Q4 2022 – up from the average of about nine a year ago. Perhaps unsurprisingly, income is directly correlated with how many sources users are tapping, with households earning over $200,000 using an average of 21.1 sources, versus less than 10 services for those earning $80,000 or less.

And as the number of services climb, so too has the share of non-paid services with  AVOD and FAST platforms continuing to capture a greater share of the market. The share of number of non-paid services used in Q4 was up 69% over Q4 2021, while share of paid services used climbed 16%.

Although users are turning to free options, consumers still appear willing to pay for video services – with overall average spending on video services each month increasing almost $20 since last year to just under $190 per month. Despite increases, around 31% of respondents claim recent economic inflation is causing them to cut their overall entertainment spending, but a whopping 84.8% said they have no plans to reduce entertainment spending or don’t know when they will.

The discovery challenge

When it comes to pain points, respondents cited “discovery” – meaning the ability to find new and relevant video content – as a bigger issue than the overall cost of their video services.

According to TiVo, the top ways consumers are finding out about new TV shows or movies continues to be through commercials or ads that run during other shows (47.9%) and by word of mouth or from friends (46.5%), although both methods saw low single digit declines in Q4.

Two categories that saw the highest growth in the period were display ads on the home screen of video services, which ticked up nearly 5% as a way for users to discover content, as well as in-stream advertising on video services, which climbed 3.2%.

“In-stream and display advertising via online video sources are becoming increasingly important methods for content discovery. But in general, the mix by which consumers are discovering content has never been more varied,” wrote TiVo.