Streaming Users Feel Overwhelmed By Choices, Nielsen Report Says – The Hollywood Reporter
Nearly half of U.S. streaming users say they feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of programming on streaming services. But they have no plans to cut back.
Those are the key findings from a Nielsen report analyzing the state of streaming. The report, titled State of Play, uses data from the company’s TV and streaming ratings, insights from Nielsen’s Gracenote content recognition service, and surveys of streaming users to provides a snapshot of where things are.
The survey found that 46% of streaming consumers feel overwhelmed by the growing number of platforms and titles available to them, which can make searching for specific titles in one place. particular becomes more difficult. And no wonder: As of February, according to Nielsen, there were 817,000 unique program titles (series, movies, specials, and others) available through streaming services — an increase of roughly 171,000 titles (26.5%) as of the end of 2019.
The continued increase in the amount of available content means a corresponding increase in streaming time. Total streaming consumption hit 169.4 billion minutes in February, up 18% from a year earlier (143.2 billion minutes). Continuous streaming accounted for about 28% of total TV usage over the past 10 months, when Nielsen began releasing monthly snapshots of viewing by platform.
And despite the widespread sentiment that the massive volume of shows feels overwhelming, viewers have no plans to slow down. Overwhelming 93% of respondents to a Nielsen survey said they plan to keep the paid streaming services they have or add more over the next year. The percentage of people who subscribe to four or more streaming services has more than doubled (from 7 percent to 18 percent) in the past three years.
Brian Fuhrer, senior vp product strategy at Nielsen, said in a statement: “We’ve entered the next phase of streaming, building on the trends we’ve detailed in streaming. online for the past few years. “We went from infancy to adolescence, and all the complications one would expect at that point. It’s not just streaming that’s growing year by year. Now, consumers want simplified access, and the explosion of services has renewed discussions around encapsulation and aggregation. Ultimately, these challenges signal an opportunity as the industry harnesses streaming for long-term business growth.”
A majority of survey respondents also said that faced with such a large volume of content, a streaming package would be an attractive option: Nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents said they were interested in it. a bundled service that gives access to a number of different platforms – as long as they can choose which ones.
