Report: Home Video Entertainment Spending Down in the U.S.

According to new consumer research from Parks Associates, U.S. broadband households’ average monthly expenditure on video entertainment outside of a pay-TV subscription has decreased from $29 to $23.

In the last half of 2017, spending on internet video remained steady at around $9 a month for the past several years, but there have been less purchases of cinema tickets and DVD/Blu-ray discs, leading to the overall decline.

Parks Associates released two new studies—360 View: Digital Media and Connected Consumers and 360 View: Access and Entertainment in U.S. Broadband Households—which also show a drop in multiplatform usage among households as use rates on individual screens is down even though video viewing as a whole has been about the same.

“The number of overall consumers viewing video on a connected device remains steady at 92 percent of U.S. broadband households, but viewers are using fewer devices to access that content,” said Brett Sappington, senior director at Parks Associates. “This finding indicates that consumers are starting to settle into particular viewing habits. They are focusing more on their favorite screen and connected devices and are reducing time spent on other video screens.”

The research firm also found that many viewers want to access OTT services through their pay-TV set-top box. Right now, only approximately 20 percent of pay-TV subs are able to do this.

“Users are experimenting less with multiple connected devices, but they continue to experiment with multiple OTT video services,” noted Hunter Sappington, research analyst for Parks Associates. “Many consumers now see OTT video as complementary to both other OTT video services and pay-TV services, rather than a replacement. Today’s OTT market is much more about bundling and partnerships than it is about winning subscribers from direct competitors.”

Another finding was that the rising number of partnerships between pay-TV and OTT providers in increasing the number of U.S. pay-TV households subscribing to an online video service through their pay-TV provider from 10 percent a year ago to 21 percent currently. In addition, households are consuming an average of 14.6 hours per week of video on a TV screen.