TiVo Finds COVID-19 Spurred OTT Hopping, Not Just Adding Subscriptions

January 28, 2021 by Rebecca Day|Industry Notes

Average video services per person grew 35% in Q4 over the year-ago quarter, to 6.7, among broadband-only subscribers, reported TiVo Wednesday. As the pandemic continues, “shifting consumer patterns in the video service landscape are proving to be more than mere anomalies,” the company found in 4,526 responses to a survey done for TiVo by a third-party company. “People are adjusting to a new normal.” Subscription hopping is prevalent during the pandemic, TiVo said, with 25% saying they added at least one new video subscription during the COVID-19 period; 15% canceled at least one. TVs are “overwhelmingly” the preferred screen for viewing subscription VOD (71%), ad-supported VOD (54%), virtual MVPD (58%) and network apps (43%). Smartphones came in second, followed by PCs and tablets. Respondents preferred watching streaming content via media players such as Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV and Chromecast (46%) compared with smart TVs (28%), set-top boxes or digital video recorders (13%), game console apps (6%) and Blu-ray player apps (1%).