Study: bad streaming is a switch-off

As many as one in five viewers will abandon poor streaming video experiences immediately, while the same proportion will never return to a particular service once they have had a poor experience, according to a new report.

According to consumer research from data analytics specialist Conviva’s OTT Beyond Entertainment customer survey, over 90% of viewers actively choose to return to services that deliver a superior experience.

According to the research, 17% of viewers will give up a bad viewing experience due to buffering immediately, while 59% will wait for some time for buffering to cease and 24% will wait as long as it takes for the problem to cease.

Excessive stream interruption will result in 25% giving up immediately, while only 17% will wait as long as it takes for the problem to cease.

While viewers across all content genres are intolerant of stream interruptions to a similar degree, different genres result in different levels of tolerance to buffering, with most tolerance being granted to entertainment programming.

While 20% of viewers will never return to a service with a bad viewing experience, 62% will give the service one or two more tries. Of the remainder, 9% will persevere over time while 9% will persist no matter what.

Fifty-two per cent of viewers said they would not remember a bad experience, while the remaining 48% said they would. When consumers have a choice between services, those who remember a bad service will overwhelmingly choose another service.

Conviva found that those over 45 were most likely to abandon a poor viewing experience immediately than millennials, with the youngest age group of 13-17-year-olds least likely to tune out.