Page 12 - index

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Consumers' desire to

stream video content on TV

screens will drive content

device purchases

A recently released study found that the most determin-  Family and friends - especially children, teenagers
ing factor among consumers in purchasing a new TV or and "boomerang" young adults who have returned to
video device is its ability to connect to the Internet and parents' homes - often act as influencers and agents
stream content. of change, influencing not only technology purchas-
ing decisions but which content is consumed;
Smart TVs, which are TV sets that connect to the Inter-  Thus, consumers have moved from a single-source,
net to access applications such as Netflix and Hulu single-device "mental model" to a multi-source, multi-
Plus, were selected by the majority of households par- device model;
ticipating in the qualitative study, an acceleration eth-
nography designed to help determine consumers' likely  A family is likely to watch together on a TV set on
future video-device purchases, conducted by GfK for weeknights and then watch on laptops in their own
the Council for Research Excellence (CRE). rooms between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.; and
 Where, when and how content is consumed often is
Smart TVs were followed by TV-set-connectable over- determined by negotiation among multiple household
the-top (OTT) streaming devices, such as a Roku box members, although typically the father of the house-
or the Google Chromecast device, which were typically hold plays the role of "manager" of the remote.
purchased alongside other devices such as smart TVs.
Tablets were purchased by a minority of the house- The longitudinal ethnography's 100 participant house-
holds. holds were selected to represent a balance of urban,
suburban and rural characteristics. Beginning in Octo-
ber 2013, researchers conducted in-person visits to
Researchers found that the dominant consideration homes specially selected for observation, with more
driving video-device purchase and usage decisions was scheduled for 2015.
content, and that consumers demand devices that can
stream content - to enable time-shifting or binge-
watching, for example. All households for both studies were given a personal
smart-device serving as a "participant toolkit" including
a camera and a co-discovery tool with study-specific
The acceleration ethnography was conducted among apps to enable self-reporting.
50 households in the Chicago area, which were tracked
over a 15-week period from November 2013 to April
2014. Members' online and in-store purchases were "We learned that consumers want to watch content on
monitored via self-reporting, behavior and usage sur- the best available screen - typically the screen known
veys, and follow-up questions based on incoming data. as the 'TV' most often found in the living room," said
All households participating in the study sought ways to Bryon Schafer, who serves as chair of the CRE's Digital
stream content, regardless of demographic or techno- Research Committee and is senior vice president,
graphic differences. Also, "casting" content from one Warner Bros. Media Research & Insights. "We also
device to another was a material attraction for partici- learned that kids in many ways are the gatekeepers
pants. due to their ability to grasp and advocate new viewing
technologies."
When TV sets with OTT access were introduced into a
household, they became the most-used device for vid- "The term 'watching TV' has grown to mean the viewing
eo, generating increased group viewing. The TV set, of any long form content on any screen," added Laura
whether "smart" or connected to a streaming device, Cowan, director, analytics and insight at MEC, who led
remained the dominant video-viewing device, although the team conducting the acceleration study. "The pro-
other devices were often present in the same room. gram grid is continuing to diminish in importance as
consumers adopt technologies that allow them to de-
sign their ideal viewing time and place."
The acceleration study ran concurrently with an ongo-
ing, two-year longitudinal ethnography, also conducted
for the CRE by GfK, involving a national selection of Please, take a look at the slide presentation for more
100 households, revealing the following findings: information on the findings. ◊

By Council for Research Excellence
12 Asian eMarketing August 2014 - Content Marketing