More channels turn subscribers to digital TV, price hampers growth: Decima survey

Agreater variety and choice in programming appears to be the overwhelming rationale for opting for digital television, while cost is the number one reason keeping analog TV subscribers from upgrading, according to a soon-to-be-released comprehensive consumer research report entitled THE DIGITAL DOMAIN: Consumer Attitudes on Digital Television Services, Benefits and Features in Canada, by Decima Publishing Inc. and Decima Research Inc. A third (33%) of digital television subscribers polled in a national telephone survey of more than 2,000 Canadian adults conducted in May and June 2003 say that "access to more channels" convinced them to subscribe to digital. The prospect of better picture quality and improved sound is a contributing factor, with 25% of digital TV respondents stating that led them to choose a digital TV service. Only a very small percentage mention new services available in digital, such as pay-per-view, video-on-demand, personal video recorder or interactive television, as reasons for subscribing to digital TV. Motives for subscribing to digital TV haven’t changed all that much since the introduction of the technology. When results are compared based on time subscribed, respondents who have been digital TV subscribers for no more than six months are just as likely to mention "access to more channels" and "better picture and sound quality" as those who have been digital TV subscribers for more than two years. The top three most important services, benefits and features as ranked by digital subscribers - "better picture and sound quality," "an on-screen interactive TV guide" and "the ability to ‘pick and pay’ for only the TV channels that you want" - receive a similar ranking of close to 70%. The next most important feature is "greater variety of packages" with a relative importance rating of 58%, followed by "access to more movies," "access to more channels," "time shifting" and "high-definition TV," which all rate relatively equal in importance at close to 50%. Overall, results from the survey indicate that 73% or 9.3 million of the 11.9 million households in Canada pay for some type of television service. Among TV subscription households, 38% or 3.5 million subscribe to a digital service. Four in 10 digital subscribers, or 41%, indicated that they pay for digital specialty channels. Some 14% of digital subscribers not currently subscribing to digital channels say they are "definitely interested" or "probably interested" in subscribing. By assigning a weighting factor to those who indicate they would definitely or probably subscribe to the diginets, the report estimates that subscription to digital specialty channels among current digital TV subscribers will increase by about 4% in the next year. While a growing number of Canadian households subscribe to digital TV, 61% still appear content to remain analog TV subscribers. One-third (33%) of analog subscribers respond that price is the number one reason for not converting to digital TV. About 7% of analog subscribers used to subscribe to digital TV. Some 2% of analog subscribers indicate that they "definitely" would take digital within 12 months, while another 6% responded that they "probably" would. About 44% of analog subscribers who indicate that they would "definitely" subscribe to digital TV within the next 12 months cite "access to more channels" as the main reason for doing so. The consumer research findings in the report are based on a national survey of 2,002 Canadian adults who pay for their TV service. The results of a survey of this size drawn from the population provide results accurate to within plus or minus 2.2%, 19 times out of 20. Some of the findings are based on smaller subsets of the sample, so the margin of error will be greater. THE DIGITAL DOMAIN: Consumer Attitudes on Digital Television Services, Benefits and Features in Canada is a new syndicated consumer research report. It is a companion to Decima Publishing’s digital TV market overview report series entitled THE DIGITAL DOMAIN: Tracking the Growth and Development of the Canadian Digital TV Distribution TV Market. For information on the reports, contact Mario Mota or Ryan ONeill at (613) 230-1984.

More channels turn subscribers to digital TV, price hampers growth: Decima survey

Broadcast | September 18, 2003

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