New research conducted by JWS Research and reported in The Australian Financial Review, The Australian and by Mumbrella finds that a number of Australians are planning to cancel, put on hold or let lapse their pay TV services as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The research was commissioned by The Trade Desk and conducted in September of this year with a quantitative survey of 1,000 Australians.
Results show that 14 per cent of Australians intend to cut their pay TV subscriptions, with the figure increasing to 23 per cent among Australians aged 18 to 34 years. The Trade Desk argues that the shift of this demographic from pay TV to other streaming or broadcast video-on-demand services means that advertisers will have to develop new strategies to reach younger Australians.
The research also found that the ripple effect of the impact of COVID-19 on Australian household budgets was felt in this space, with 28 per cent of those who had a loss of employment or income planning to cut back on their pay TV subscriptions.
James Bayes, General Manager of The Trade Desk in Australia and New Zealand, says, “we’ve seen the pandemic accelerate consumer and media trends that would have taken years compressed into a few months. As a result, the advertising industry is going through a profound transformation that’s changing how marketers think about reaching consumers.”
“Broadcasters and pay TV operators have acknowledged this shift and are investing heavily in creating world-class streaming services with enhanced experiences, deep content catalogues and personalisation capability.”
You can read the reporting in The Australian Financial Review here, in The Australian here, on Mumbrella here and you can click below to read The Trade Desk’s release of the results.