News

IP TV is no way to get rich, fixed line or mobile, says survey

by Guy J Kewney | posted on 01 December 2007

"The survey does not make encouraging reading for those seeking to persuade consumers to buy online content. People generally won't pay and, where they will, this is at the expense of other media, principally DVD." So reads the painful core of the Olswang/YouGov Convergence Consumer Survey 2007.

Matthew Phillips, Media, Communications and Technology Partner at Olswang, issued a press release which is very encouraging for the future growth of streaming media - but very discouraging for anybody who thinks they can sell it on a pay per view basis.

He said: "True convergence is starting to take hold in UK households, with more people networking their devices to share content in the home and taking this content with them when on the move. This has intensified demand for free content, as consumers want a full range of content for these devices but are unwilling to pay for it."

The history of Internet media is easy to simplify. Just delete all references to "chargeable content" and the core of successful ventures that remains, are all advertising based. That's excellent news for successful ventures such as YouTube and YouPorn, of course; but the sting in the tail is the problem of bandwidth.

Now in its third year, the survey "provides strong endorsement for those looking to make advertising, rather than payment, the business model for online content," says today's release.

It continues: "While 84% of respondents said they found online adverts intrusive and 75% claim to actively try to avoid pop up adverts, consumers are prepared to suppress this antipathy in their quest for free content, with 46% of respondents willing to put up with adverts if this means they can get TV or movies for free."

But this willingness to watch online video - including commercial adverts - means that the load on backhaul networks is going to increase, without an obvious way of increasing the revenue generated for carriers.

The Olswang survey of mobile TV shows:

65% of respondents have a general lack of interest in watching TV channels or TV or movie clips on mobiles.

Respondents are more likely to use their mobile phones to share content with their friends, with 30% receiving photos and 17% receiving videos on their phones from friends at least once a month.

Respondents who are not already streaming to their mobiles show the most interest in sideloading music or podcasts from their computers, with 15% being definitely or possibly interested in this latter activity, rather than acquiring content through the mobile network.

Press release in full here

Full report in Acrobat PDF format of all the survey results.