Online Video Subscribers Prefer TV Shows Over Movies

NEW YORK: A new report from GfK has found that subscribers to Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video and Hulu Plus are overwhelmingly watching more TV shows—both classic and contemporary—on those services than they are watching movies, by a margin of about four to one.

GfK surveyed the viewing habits and preferences of subscribers to the three leading OTT platforms. Of the 2,300 viewing segments mentioned by respondents, 81 percent were for TV shows. Hulu Plus is dominated by TV viewership—96 percent. At Netflix, users preferred TV shows by a three-to-one margin (77 percent versus 23 percent). At Amazon Prime it was 79 percent to 21 percent. In terms of total viewing time, TV dominated movies by a factor of two to one.

The most mentioned TV show, with 4 percent of viewing segments, was Star Trek, followed by Breaking Bad and Mad Men at 3 percent each. The most-watched movies list included The Hunger Games, the Mission: Impossible franchise and Thor.

“Though subscription streaming is now recognized as a major factor in video use, there has been scant information about content watched, circumstances of viewing, and other key variables,” said David Tice, senior VP of GfK’s media and entertainment team. “We see that, contrary to broadcast TV’s ‘mass’ audience model, streaming services generate episodic, niche viewing—more broad and unpredictable than even the 200 channels on your cable TV menu. These services provide the control and multiplicity of choice that consumers crave, and the result is very individual behavior.”