More than half (56%) of adults in the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and France are willing to watch ads on TV in exchange for in response to the rising costs of streaming subscriptions, reveals a Samsung Ads Europe consumer study.
The report, the 2021 Connected TV Viewer, conducted by Ipsos, surveyed more than 5,000 consumers with a smart TV to further explore the market context and understand the cultural influences shaping the role of the smart TV within the home. It fundamentally found that recommendations key to helping viewers find what they want to watch.
The data revealed that the smart TV audience in the countries had an overwhelmingly more positive attitude to ads on TV compared with other devices and were at least twice as likely to consider them better quality, entertaining and eye-catching, versus ads on other devices in the home. Almost two-fifths thought ads on smart TV were high quality compared with 11% on mobile or 8% on laptop/desktop, while 37% thought ads on smart TVs were entertaining versus 15% on mobile and 8% on desktop.
Streaming was revealed to be a shared experience. Nearly three quarters (72%) of the smart TV audience said they would mostly turn to streaming services when they want to sit down with others to enjoy a programme together compared with just 18% mostly turning to linear TV, while 73% mostly chose to turn to streaming for an entire evening of viewing. In comparison 19% would turn to linear TV. In addition,78% of EU smart TV users mostly stream when they are looking for something new to watch, with only 14% considering linear TV as a channel for discovery. However, live events such as news and sport are largely still linear experiences. Families with children have greater engagement with both smart TVs and streaming, watching more often and for longer than those without children.
Two-thirds of the smart TV audience (67%) agreed that they had more than enough choice when it comes to content to watch on the services they have access to. However, the research highlighted the role that Smart TVs can play in enabling audiences to find the content they like quickly. Two-thirds (66%) of the smart TV audience suggested that recommendations on their TV home screen based on shows they or their household have watched across services would be appealing.
Looking at moments when the smart TV audience were not quite sure what to watch, only 21% would be likely to go straight to an app, with 64% likely to look at information on their smart TV home screen to help guide their decision making. This shows that the smart TV can act as a gateway, reducing content overload for viewers and acting as a key portal to the best content.
The study also found that YouTube and its rival Dailymotion had been viewed on smart TVs by 38% of viewers in the last three months while 27% had used their smart TV as a music player and 19% for browsing the internet. The survey showed that multiple functions of smart TVs were reflected in the emotional needs the audience sees their smart TV fulfilling: 9% of those surveyed best identified their r as being a source of education or instruction; 12% of the Smart TV audience have watched cooking videos; 10% watched other types of tutorials through their smart TV in the past three months.
“What we can see is that the Smart TV is becoming a multi-purpose facilitator for entertainment, connection, learning and more. Viewers’ willingness to watch ads in exchange for free content combined with the perception of ads on TV is an exciting opportunity for advertisers trying to reach streaming audiences through ad funded streaming platforms,” said Alex Hole, vice president of Samsung Ads Europe commenting on the 2021 Connected TV Viewer report.
“As consumers look to free ad-supported TV content, the end consumer expects high quality content and advertising on the biggest screen in their home. This reflects what we have known instinctively; to fit into a premium advertising channel, the ads must be premium, too.”
Source: rapidtvnews.com
