OTT: Quality Matters

CONSUMERS WHO go over-the-top to watch premium content have lots of choices at their fi ngertips, but it turns out that they also have limited patience for a sub-par streaming experience, Conviva found in a recent study.

Conviva, a provider of a streaming monitoring and optimization platform to partners such as HBO and Sky, found that 75% of the 750 viewers aged 26 to 34 it polled in the mid 2015 study will throw up their hands and give up if they experience poor resolution or buffering for a period of four minutes or less. About one-third of them will abandon a shoddy experience in 30 seconds or less.

The study also shedded light on binge-viewing, a phenomenon brought on by the popularity of video-on-demand and streaming. About 87% of those surveyed said they’re capable of binging on three or fewer shows at one sitting, while just 2% said they can gobble up eight to 10 episodes at a time.

Despite the growing adoption of smartphones and tablets, consumers still tend to binge-view on larger screens. Per the study, the PC remains the leading binge-watching platform, followed by video-on-demand delivered by traditional pay TV providers, and TV-connected Roku and Apple TV devices.