Ampere: Over 55s failing to see attractions of SVOD

Over 55s are not tuning in to subscription video-on-demand, even though they have embraced catch-up on-demand services from free-to-air broadcasters, according to research by Ampere Analysis.

A study by Ampere of TV viewing habits in 13 countries revealed that only two in 10 people aged 55-64 in the US viewed Netflix in the past month, compared to four in 10 viewers overall. In the UK, just one in 10 people aged 55-64 viewed Netflix in the past month, and in Germany just one in 20.

According to Ampere, viewers in this age group, unlike younger segments, prefer to watch shows on TV sets rather than smartphones and tablets, with 80% of viewing in evening primetime hours being done on a TV.

Older viewers are 33% less likely to have an SVOD service than the TV audience as a whole. They are also 31% less likely to have premium channels and 65% to subscribe to streaming music services such as Spotify.

In the UK, only 13% of the 55-64 year-old group view Netflix in the month covered by the survey, and 8% use Amazon. However, 53% watched BBC iPlayer in the period covered by the study, while 34% watched IPTV Hub, numbers similar to the national average. Some 19% watched All4, compared to 28% of ll viewers, and 17% watched My5 compared to 18% of all viewers.

In Germany, ZDF’s catch-up service ZDF Mediathek was watched by 25% of 55-64 year olds in the last month, compared to 22% of all viewers. For RTL Now, it’s 7% and 10% respectively.

The 55-64 year-old age group prefer current affairs, news, documentaries, crime and thrillers, while 18-24s prefer horror and comedy, sci-fi and fantasy, according to Ampere.

“Older viewers are often an overlooked audience segment, despite representing a fifth of target viewers – and a sixth of all adults – and an increasingly wealthy portion of the population,” said Richard Broughton, director of Ampere Analysis.

“Smart TV penetration is reasonably high amongst this group, and they are using the broadcasters’ catch-up services already, so it should be possible to encourage them to take SVoD services. The key to understanding the dynamics of this hugely varied group is to get the content offer, package, price and message right and introduce them to the world of SVoD. Content suiting the genre interests of this group – such as Netflix’s The Crown – is already beginning to filter through to services and will do much to improve the saleability of SVoD to this audience.”