LOS ANGELES—As both Apple TV+ and Disney+ ready for their big debuts in early November, about 42% of consumers expect that they will add one of the new services (which will eventually also consist of HBO Max and Peacock), but even more (87%) are worrying at the cost it will be to keep up with the latest offerings.
These findings come from a joint study by TV Time and United Talent Agency’s UTA IQ data and analytics group, titled “Beyond the Big Three,” that sought to determine awareness, purchase intent and how specific offerings will motivate consumer adoption.
While almost half of respondents say they plan to add one of the upcoming streaming services, that number drops to 20% at the prospect of adding two new streaming services. One reason for this is likely that the emergence of these new options will not impact the subscribers of the big three current services—Netflix, Hulu and Amazon—as 70% said they were not “likely” or “very likely” to drop a current service.
Another 70% of consumers also believe that these new additions will create an environment of too many streaming services and, as mentioned above, result in a bill more expensive than they would like. But it’s not just cost that some are skeptical about, other frustrations include the need to toggle between services (67% people cited this), the process of account setup and management (58%) and the inability to find content easily (45%).
Consumers also shared that while subscription-only models are still the most popular (56%) compared to ad-supported models (44%), there are those willing to convert to ad-supported if it helps alleviate the cost of the service.
As for what will be the biggest draw for consumers to a particular service, library content is more important than originals. What library content was available on the service was “important” or “very important” to 90% of respondents; originals earned 68% in those categories.
When it comes to the awareness of these new services, Disney+ (88%) and Apple TV+ (63%) are the most well known, though HBO Max (37%) and Peacock (28%) aren’t launching until spring 2020.
The study also took a closer look at the Disney+ service, including what type of customers are likely to subscribe to the service. Though Disney does have a family-friendly image, family households were only slightly more likely to sign up for the service than adult-only households (57% to 55%). And in international markets where Disney+ plans to launch, interest is a little lower than the U.S. (56%); the Netherlands come in at 49%, Canada at 42% and Australia 38%.
The study was conducted in September and used TV Time’s global community of more than 12 million users in the U.S. and the three international markets where Disney+ is launching.
The full report is available here.
