Programmes, programmes everywhere and not a thing to watch!!!!!
You won’t believe the hours we waste searching…
This is latest BHC Bulletin…
Hello and welcome to the May Beech Hill Consultancy Bulletin, a short digest of the more interesting (and often under-reported) media stories and research.
This time we look at the hours we all waste finding something to watch, the deep frustrations of streaming viewers, and how European audience choice continues to be provided by the US media giants.
So first one of those pieces of research that makes you really think…Brits spend 182hrs per year searching for content, get ready for the new name “choice paralysis’!
Using multiple streaming services and debating what to watch can be time-consuming. A study by Currys uncovered how much time people spend choosing a programme or movie to watch and asked 2,018 people to understand their challenges and difficulties in selecting content.
Out of those asked, 10 percent admitted they spend up to 2 hours trying to find something to watch, with the average time spent, across all respondents, on this decision dilemma being 30 minutes a day.
For those who find themselves watching TV daily, this 30 minutes per day translates to 182.5 hours per year dedicated to the task of deciding what to watch.
Brits only give shows 34 minutes to impress them.
The study also revealed that UK viewers take a surprisingly short time to figure out if they want to continue watching a show or not, with the average decision time being 34 minutes to decide on whether to keep going.
A fascinating read with more details here:
Similar data is thrown up by professional services company Accenture Media Thrive Index which assesses the impact of reinvention strategies on media and entertainment companies’ ability to succeed financially and strategically in an increasingly challenging industry.
Key findings:
Tired of Browsing – More than a third of consumers (36 percent) say they struggle to find something entertaining to watch while 52 percent say recommended content does not match their interests.
Serial Churners – Nearly 60 percent of consumers are canceling and resubscribing to services based on the availability of desirable content. In 2023, 47 percent of consumers canceled more subscriptions than the previous year.
Shifting Preferences – Two-thirds of consumers consider user-generated content to be as entertaining as traditional forms of media. In all scenarios presented to consumers, such as “when I want something funny” or “when I want to relax,” social media and social video platforms were consistently picked over streaming video services as the media of choice.
More details on Accenture’s own website:
https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/communications-media/reinvent-for-growth
And finally for this month – policy makers in Europe need to sit up and take note but 85 percent of viewing time on Vod services is generated by only three services (Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+).
Of that viewing, 30 percent is of European (including UK) content. So culturally 70% of the content is non-European, much of it American.
These are the main takeaways from two new reports SVOD Usage in the European Union and Film and TV content in TVOD, SVOD and FOD catalogues – 2023 Edition published by the European Audiovisual Observatory, which is part of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
Even more detail from the report at Advanced Television:
And that’s it for this BHC Bulletin – for any media, comms and leadership challenges why not ask Beech Hill Consultancy for advice?