Survey Sez: Customers Want IPTV On Their TVs

A recent Cisco survey says 65 percent of U.S. respondents would be more likely to watch videos online if they could do it directly through their TVs, and 50 percent would pay for an online video if available through their service provider — especially if it were offered at a low price point and was easy to set up.

“When you think of the  broadcast video entertainment arena, it seems to have been centered upon the notion that there’s a huge undifferentiated mass-market of consumers who — by and large — all want the same thing,” the networking giant says. “Incumbent pay-TV service offerings have tended to follow this belief, by delivering a small set of standardized service packages. And for the longest time there’s been no compelling need for traditional service providers to more closely scrutinize the market segmentation variables.”

Noting that there has been a shift in the marketplace when it comes to customers’ wants and needs, Cisco commissioned a market study to learn more. Here are some key takeaways from that market study:

• 56 percent of survey respondents believe it’s important to be able to watch content on multiple devices (this figure increases to 72 percent for those younger than 25 and 67 percent of people aged 25 to 35).
• 65 percent would be more likely to watch videos online if they could do it directly through their TVs (especially those who live with friends, with that number jumping to  77 percent).
• 50 percent would pay for an online video service (and this increases to 57 percent of people aged 25 to 35) if available through their service providers. Some consumers are willing to pay between $10 and $16 per month in extra fees for a service-provider TV package that includes watching online video content.
• 54 percent would like to be able to access general Internet content on their TVs.
• 58 percent would be less worried about their children’s social-networking activities if it were carried out via TV, so they could see what was happening.