Though the segement of consumers who subscribe to a virtual MVPD service is still relatively small, most of them are pleased with the value those services provide, according to a study from The Diffusion Group.
TDG’s survey of 2,000 U.S. adult broadband users found that less than 5% of that group subscribe to a service such as Sling TV or DirecTV Now, but 86% that do say they are pleased with the value provided by those offerings.
Among those consumers, 49% ranked their OTT TV services as “very good” and 37% as “good,” while 3% found them to be “poor” or “very poor,” TDG found it data pulled from its Q2 Benchmarking the Connected Consumer project.
"Given that virtual pay-TV services are for the most part a value play, one premised on 'skinny' channel bundles at lower-than-cable prices, user value perception is a critical metric," Michael Greeson, president and principal analyst at TDG, said in a statement. "Early evidence suggests vMVPD providers are doing well in this regard. Users seem okay without the 'full Monty' of legacy pay-TV channels, and to be fairly tolerant of the shortcomings that haunt live streaming video, such as buffering, pixilation, and screen freezing."
