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Nielsen: Abundance of Streaming Content Overwhelming Viewers
December 28, 2022
The average U.S. consumer subscribes to at least four streaming services, according to the Deloitte Digital Media Trends Study. Another report suggests 7% of consumers have six or more SVOD subscriptions.
As SVOD platforms spend big on original and licensing content to differentiate themselves from the competition, consumers have become overwhelmed with programming choices when including linear television.
Data from Nielsen found that consumers have more than 817,000 unique program titles to choose from across traditional TV and streaming services. That’s up 18% from just more than 646,000 titles at the end of 2019.
In an average week, U.S. audiences watch nearly 170 billion minutes of streaming video content on their television. That’s up from more than 143 billion minutes in 2021.
Nielsen’s recent streaming media consumer survey found that while only one in 20 respondents have negative feelings about their streaming experiences — and 93% said they plan to either keep or increase their paid streaming services over the next year — finding the right content has become a challenge.
About 46% of survey respondents said it is harder to find the content they want to watch because there are too many streaming services available. Another 64% of respondents wish there was a bundled video streaming service that would allow them to choose as few or as many video streaming services that they wanted, more like linear TV channels.
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The report concluded that the media industry should help consumers find what they’re looking for and use what they know about their subscribers’ evolving viewing behaviors to keep them engaged.
“The audience will steer the future of the streaming landscape, and the media industry can help consumers in their media journeys by leveraging data to ensure they never get lost along the way,” read the report.
There’s a glut of content. And the streaming services creating their own original content just compounds the problem. I’m not saying they should completely stop, but probably limit it to a relatively small handful of titles. Otherwise, just concentrate on getting the already existing content from broadcast and cable added to your service.