Most OTT viewers aged 21 to 29, says SPB TV survey

The majority of over-the-top video viewers are aged 21 to 29 years old, though OTT access is becoming increasingly common, according to a study by SPB TV.

Announcing the survey results at IBC, SPB TV – a provider of end-to-end OTT, IP and mobile TV solutions – said that 21-29 year-olds accounted for 38% of the OTT TV audience profile, followed by 30-39 year-olds at 25%.

Those aged 18-20 made up 13% of the audience share, while 40-49 year-olds accounted for 11%.

In terms of gender divide, the research said that 28% of OTT viewers were women, up from just 11% in 2011. SPB said that this meant “OTT TV is no longer an innovative ‘toy’ for geeks but rather a convenient way to access video content.”

Elsewhere, the survey, which is focused on modern TV consumption, said that viewers “rarely pay full attention to TV or video for viewing purposes only,” with multitasking and parallel media consumption now a common trend.

Among the most popular ‘second screen’ activities was discussing shows online, browsing social networks, browsing the web for more information about the show being watched, and exchanging emails and personal messages – often on the same device that users are viewing the content on.

“Multitasking can be often carried out on the same screen on PCs and mobile devices. It is remarkable that the respondents prefer to conduct activities on the same device,” said SPB TV’s CEO Kirill Filippov.

“Emerging markets drive innovation and affect changes in the actual use of modern-day TV. It is not simply the content and the technology that drive innovation but the audience and its demands.”

The survey was based on a sample of 50,000 respondents, the majority of whom were based in Brazil, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa and Ukraine.

Separately, at IBC, SPB TV introduced Genie, a framework for developing interfaces for smartphones, tablets, PCs, smart TVs, set-top boxes and game consoles. It also demoed a portable encoding device called NaNo Encoder.