The global market penetration of over-the-top services has hit 38 per cent, with growth accelerating across all consumer segments, according to a new research report from Grabyo.
The 2019 report from the cloud-based video production, editing and distribution company surveyed 9,690 consumers across the UK, United States, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Australia, concluding that OTT platforms are a more popular choice for video viewing than pay-television services in every territory.
Grabyo’s report details that 65 per cent of consumers who have ‘cut the cord’ pay for an OTT service, whilst 58 per cent of those planning to cut the cord in the next three years subscribe to an OTT service today.
The majority of cord-cutters are younger consumers, but the report indicates that the rapidly improving quality of content available on OTT platforms is attractive to audiences of all ages. OTT services are used to view video most often by consumers aged between 26-49. For 18-25-year-olds, consumption on OTT is second only to video viewing on social media platforms.
The study found that Netflix has hit 54-per-cent global market penetration, which rises to an average of 61 per cent within predominantly English-speaking countries. In contrast, Amazon Prime Video has 30-per-cent global market penetration and is the second-most popular OTT service in many territories.
The research shows that globally, consumers also have a growing appetite for localised OTT services. In each territory, services such as BBC iPlayer, Canalplay, 10 Play or FuboTV are becoming increasingly popular with local audiences, with an average 22-per-cent uptake.
Across the leading European countries, the demand for localised content is high. In the UK, 32 per cent of consumers use local services and across France, Germany, Italy and Spain, almost 20 per cent use local OTT services regularly.
Gareth Capon, Grabyo chief executive, said: “OTT services are moving into the mainstream and are set to become the primary destination for video viewing in most markets. Traditional broadcasters need to evolve TV services to reflect the viewing preferences of modern consumers.
“Organisations such as the BBC are successfully transitioning the TV offering to raise the profile and primacy of streaming and OTT services, but more is needed to enable consumers to watch when they want, whenever they want to.”
The report also demonstrates that amongst high-income earners, 60 per cent pay for an OTT service. This drops to 40 per cent for low-income earners. In both consumer segments, subscription to OTT services is higher than pay-television, which sits at 50 per cent for high-income and 36 per cent for the low-income segment.
The report states that 38 per cent of global consumers only pay for digital video services, with sport the main content sought out. Forty-one per cent of respondents said sport featured amongst the content they sought out, with 35 per cent stating entertainment, 32 per cent responding television series/clips and 18 per cent esports.