Amdocs: 83% of UK turn to streaming during lockdown

Amdocs Media has commissioned research looking into UK consumers’ digital subscriptions, which includes streaming, cable, music, gaming, e-learning and wellbeing, surveying the views of 1,000 people.

Raman Abrol, General Manager & Chief Commercial Officer at Amdocs said commenting on the news: “Lockdowns have seen consumers wanting more from their subscription services. This data shows there is a real desire for more high quality content and bespoke content packages across the increasingly wide range of subscription services we now enjoy.”

Here’s what we learnt about consumers views on the different types of subscription services:

Cable & streaming subscriptions

More people in the UK now have an OTT/streaming subscription (83%) than a traditional cable/satellite TV subscription (69%). In fact, one in three (33%) has two or more steaming subscriptions and 14% have 3 or more. Additionally, more than half (54%) said they use their OTT subscriptions more now than before the pandemic started.

Consumers say that streaming services are delivering on their content needs. 70% of UK consumers that have streaming subscriptions say that they get all of the content that they need from services. Meanwhile, 59% of cable/satellite subscribers say that they get all of the content they need from satellite providers.

However, most people (73%) would prefer to pay a lower price for a subscription package that had less content overall, but the content they got was more tailored to their preferences. TV/streaming viewers were most in favour of a more restricted but personalised subscription.

45% of people have participated in some form of virtual viewing party during the lockdown, either through social media or a video conferencing tool like Zoom.

Wellness, e-learning and online journalism

E-learning subscription services were the most likely to be added since the start of the pandemic, with 39% of those who have a subscription only subscribing since March 2020. However, despite their growing importance, e-learning, wellness and paid journalism were still the least popular types of subscriptions in UK households overall.

20% of households are currently subscribed to an e-learning service, 25% to a wellness service and 26% to some form of paid journalism/media content. By comparison, 45% are paying for a gaming service and 60% are paying for a music subscription. Additionally, e-learning, wellness and paid journalism were also the most likely subscriptions to be cancelled during lockdown as consumers reconsider their spending habits. 

People are least receptive to adverts on wellness apps, but overall, adverts had little bearing on whether or not someone cancelled a subscription across all types of services.

Gaming and music streaming

45% of UK households are now subscribed to a gaming service, and 60% now subscribed to a music streaming service.

Consumers have been spending less on music services than all over digital subscriptions, with 54% of subscribers spending less than £10 a month. Music streamers were also the most impacted by ads, with 17% saying the amount of ad-free content drives their loyalty to a service (compared to an average 7%).

Music (47%) and gaming (45%) services were used more by consumers during the pandemic, with only streaming (54%) seeing a bigger increase in usage.

 Gamers were most likely to want full access to all content, with 47% saying they wouldn’t be interested in a more bespoke package. Whereas, TV/streaming viewers were much more open to a more restricted but personalised subscription.

Across all types of subscription

When asked what drives loyalty to a subscription service, more consumers today care about the quality and quantity of content available to them, than price.

–        46% of consumers said the quantity of content factors into their loyalty to a service

–        44% of consumers said quality of content

–        29% said price or availability of different pricing options

–        24% said the smoothness of the onboarding process

–        11% said the ratio of ads: ad-free content

Across all forms of subscription services, 61% of UK consumers were willing to exchange personal data to improve their subscription experience further, with the top requested benefits being:

• Access to more content (40%)
• Access to the same content, but at a lower price (37%)
• Fewer ads (32%)