Deloitte Survey Reflects Importance of Internet Bundles, Binge Viewing

NEW YORK: Almost half of U.S. consumers subscribe to a paid streaming video service, according to Deloitte’s 11th Digital Democracy Survey, which also found that 66 percent of pay-TV customers keep that service because it comes bundled with an internet offering.

“American consumers continued to stream, binge watch and demand more media in 2016,” said Kevin Westcott, vice chairman and U.S. media and entertainment leader at Deloitte LLP. “As the growing forces of social media and over-the-top services continue to accelerate, particularly among millennials and Generation Z, the consumer rules. The shift to streaming, mobile, on-demand services and personalization are significant opportunities in 2017. Brands can bring new value, services and incredibly entertaining content to the empowered consumers across all age groups in a manner that can be monetized.”

While 49 percent of U.S. consumers have at least one paid streaming video service subscription, that number rises to 60 percent for Gen Z, millennials and Gen X. However, U.S. consumers spend more time streaming video via free services (40 percent) than paid streaming subscriptions (35 percent).

The pay-TV penetration rate is 74 percent, Deloitte says. Of those who have kept that cable or satellite subscription, 66 percent did so because it was bundled with their internet service. About 73 percent of U.S. consumers have binge-watched content; for millennials and Gen Z that number is a whopping 90 percent, and 40 percent do so weekly. Millennial and Gen Z binge watchers report watching an average of six episodes, or five hours of content, in a single sitting. The millennial and Gen Z demo is spending about half of their viewing time on devices other than a television set; as compared with Gen X who use the TV set 60 percent of the time and Baby Boomers who use it 80 percent of the time.

Another headline finding is that 84 percent of Americans are on social networks, as consumers use the medium to discover new content, get news and resolve customer service issues. More than half of Gen Z and millennials use social networks to learn about new TV shows, citing it to be more useful than TV commercials. Nearly all millennials and Gen Z are multitasking while watching TV, averaging four additional activities, including texting, web surfing, using social networks, reading email and online shopping.

The survey also explores consumers’ response to advertising: more than 80 percent of consumers will skip an online video ad if allowed, and 46 percent pay more attention to an ad they can skip versus an ad they cannot skip. About 45 percent of millennials are using ad-blocking software. Deloitte also reports that online recommendations on social media (27 percent) are more influential than TV ads (18 percent) for Gen Z in influencing buying decisions.