DURAHM, N.C. – Less is more for TV consumers according to a recent study. The desire for à la carte TV subscriptions, where consumers select the channels they want to include in their packages, has reached 81.6 percent of consumers surveyed in DigitalSmith’s Q1 2015 Video Trends Report.
Many current TV subscription packages offer large amounts of channels, sometimes nearing 200, with nearly 60 percent of consumers paying more than $100 a month for the complete package. According to DigitalSmith’s study, 81.7 percent of consumers only watch between one and 10 of those channels regularly. DigitalSmith gave those surveyed a choice of 75 popular channels to choose from to form their ideal TV-package.
“On average, respondents chose 17 channels to make up their ideal lineup,” states the report. “Next, the survey asked respondents what is the most they would pay for this ideal lineup? The average price was $38 a month.”
The most popular option between those surveyed was ABC, which 66.7 percent of respondents said they would include in their ideal package. The rest of the top ten includes Discovery Channel, CBS, NBC, History Channel, National Geographic Channel, FOX, PBS, HBO and Comedy Central. Only 35.7 percent of people said they would include ESPN, ranking it 20th among the channels offered.
According to DigitalSmiths, some Pay-TV providers are considering offering lower-priced “skinny packages” to subscribers; but some content, including ESPN, would be excluded from that option.
The full report is available for download here.
