Nearly Half of U.S., U.K. Consumers Using OTT Services

NEW YORK: New research from Accenture reveals that around half of consumers surveyed in the U.S. and U.K. are using over-the-top (OTT) services to watch video through a broadband connection on their TVs.

Half of the U.S. respondents and 48 percent of U.K. consumers surveyed report that they are viewing OTT video on the TV in addition to the content they traditionally watch via cable or satellite. This is an average of 49 percent of consumers that say they subscribe to various video delivery services, which is quite a spike from the last time Accenture did this survey. In March 2011, 8 percent reported doing so.

“We are seeing a seismic shift in consumer viewing habits,” said Robin Murdoch, a managing director in Accenture’s Media & Entertainment industry group. “The connected consumer is now comfortable viewing TV shows and video on a variety of screens, as well as sharing opinions of that content via social channels or recommendation engines.”

In the U.S., 27 percent say they subscribe to OTT services such as Netflix Instant Streaming compared with 28 percent to satellite. In the U.K., 26 percent of those surveyed subscribe to or access OTT services like Netflix, LOVEFiLM or the BBC’s iPlayer or Sky’s NOW TV, compared with 30 percent to satellite. In the U.S., 16 percent subscribe to gaming console-based video delivery systems and 9 percent do so in the U.K.; 4 percent of U.S. consumers and 3 percent of U.K. consumers use set-top subscription services such as Apple TV, Boxee or Google TV.