A new Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) report notes that 59% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu.
The firm’s OTT Video Market Tracker service notes that only 6% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to any other OTT service without also having a subscription to one of the top three services, while 3% subscribe to one or more sports OTT video service, including MLB.TV, NFL Game Pass, NBA League Pass, or WWE Network.
The OTT Video Market Tracker ongoing service provides industry research data and analysis of competing players’ strengths and weaknesses in the space and includes an exhaustive analysis of market trends and profiles of more than 100 OTT video service providers in the U.S. and Canada.
“U.S. consumers are not taking solely a Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu subscription. Many are shopping around and trialing new services to get access to interesting content unavailable through the big services,” said Brett Sappington, senior director of Research, Parks Associates. “Interest and viewership in OTT video services have led to an increase in total subscriptions since 2015, including an increase in households subscribing to two, three, or even four or more services. All this translates into more money being spent by consumers and more opportunity for niche content services to capture revenues.”
Parks Associates notes that Crunchyroll and WWE Network are examples of niche services that have grown strong customer bases while remaining unique from industry giants such as Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. Crunchyroll reported more than one million global subscribers as of February 2017, while WWE Network had 1.95 million global subscribers following WrestleMania 33 in April.
“Crunchyroll is a great example of a niche OTT video service that understands effective niche-oriented competition,” Sappington said. “They understand their target segment extremely well, and they have crafted an experience that caters to that audience, including forums and events to foster a user community.”
According to the OTT Video Market Tracker, 65% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to at least one OTT video service. However, the firm notes that household penetration is slowing and that growth areas are in multi-subscription households and older consumers adopting services.
“One-third of broadband households subscribe to multiple OTT services,” said Glenn Hower, senior analyst, Parks Associates. “With competition set to intensify, services will begin to focus on niche segments beyond young consumers, offering unique content and services in order to capture any remaining untapped portions of the market.”
