Deloitte: teenagers to boost SVOD growth in the next five years

A growing number of UK teenagers will subscribe to VOD services as they opt to spend pocket money on media that caters to their individual interests, according to Deloitte.

The company’s ‘Future of TV’ research said that with children in the UK averaging £11.20 per-week in pocket money, and pay TV subscription services typically starting at around £5 per month, SVOD will continue to surge in the coming years.

Improved connectivity, an increased volume of available content and low barriers of entry through reasonably-priced offerings will all be factors in helping to encourage further SVOD uptake in the next five years.

Deloitte also expects a rise in on-demand viewing among older age groups, with 15% of television viewing among people aged 50-plus expected to be on-demand by 2023. This trend is expected to be driven, in part, by ease of use, improvements in connectivity and influence from younger consumers.

“The relative affordability of a huge wealth of streamed content is incredibly attractive for media consumers of all ages,” said Dan Ison, partner and head of media and entertainment at Deloitte.

“Households will increasingly have multiple media subscriptions that cater for individuals’ needs, whether you’re a sports-nut, history-buff or movie fan. Teenagers’ pocket money, once spent on comic books and magazines, will go towards SVOD subscriptions. Content providers and media distributors may need to rethink their marketing strategies in order to appeal to the ’screenager’ market.”

Ed Shedd, partner and head of technology, media and telecommunications at Deloitte, added: “Older age groups will be nudged into on-demand viewing by their own peer group and the behaviours of younger generations in their family.

“As such, on-demand services, from broadcasters and subscription services, need to be as easy to use as traditional TV. Design and testing should be done by people who represent the target audience, and not just younger age groups.”

Deloitte predicted earlier this year that there will be 350 million digital-only subscribers globally in 2018, with around 580 million subscriptions to services that include video-on-demand, music, gaming or news and magazines. In the UK, Deloitte estimates there are about 26 million media online-only subscriptions.