Brazilians hungry for Over-the-Top' pay-TV as half of all consumers plan to subscribe this Christmas, Paywizard survey shows

Brazilians hungry for Over-the-Top' pay-TV as half of all consumers plan to subscribe this Christmas, Paywizard survey shows

30% of Brazilian consumers plan to subscribe to and Over-the-Top (OTT) pay-TV service for first time this Christmas, while 20% intend to add a second subscription

Subscribers to pay-OTT jumps from 29% to 53% of all consumers in 12 months

Outlook for OTT growth that sticks is promising, with 70% of first-time Christmas subscribers planning to stay longer than six months

London, 13th December 2016 - Brazil has emerged as one of the hungriest markets for paid internet television in the world, as the proportion of Brazilians subscribed to Over-the-Top (OTT) pay-TV has surged from 29% to 53% in the last 12 months, new research from subscription, billing and CRM specialist Paywizard reveals. The study also shows more growth is expected this Christmas when 50% of Brazilian consumers plan to sign-up for the first time or add an additional service.

The Brazilian pay-OTT sector is now the second largest in a survey of six international bellwether TV markets in terms of percentage of consumers who are pay-OTT subscribers, after the United States, where 55% are OTT subscribers. The survey, commissioned by Paywizard and carried out by Research Now, canvassed more than 6,200 consumers around the world - including 1,052 Brazilians - for the second year running to examine TV viewing trends during the Christmas period.

The Brazilian market maintained powerful momentum for online subscriptions. The 50% of all Brazilian consumers (including both first-time planned subscribers and those who anticipate adding a second service) intending to sign up to at least one OTT subscription prior to the 2016 holiday season matches the proportion as last year and stands in stark contrast to the global figure of 30%.

Bhavesh Vaghela, Chief Marketing Officer at Paywizard, comments: Based on the fantastic growth rate and clear popularity of OTT services revealed in the survey, Brazil may well overtake the US next year in terms pay-OTT adoption. We see Brazilians embracing video on demand and online sports services like no other market this Christmas.

The research shows 58% of Brazilian consumers plan to watch more TV than usual at Christmas, in line with the global figure, but a surprising 16% actually anticipate watching less TV over the holidays - although Brazil's warm December weather may be a factor. Boosted by pay-OTT, 85% of Brazilians now pay for some form of TV service, including cable and satellite.

Even with the growing OTT market and pay services costing relatively more than they would in many other countries when purchasing power is taken into account, Brazilians are far more likely to hang onto their subscriptions. Just 30% of those Brazilians planning to subscribe to OTT for the first time intend to cancel within six months, compared to 50% globally, the survey findings reveal.

While Brazilians appear to be more loyal than consumers in other markets, providers still have to make sure they take good care of their subscribers. Customer experience is a much bigger factor in Brazil than other markets, where cost is seen as a bigger reason for terminating a subscription by most consumers - but 57% of existing Brazilian subscribers say a bad customer experience would lead them to cancel (nearly as high as the 60% that list too expensive ).

With a booming OTT market, Brazilians have a huge amount of choice of service providers but Netflix is dominant, although local challenger brands are still growing fast with 26% consumer uptake of paid TV services from operators outside of Brazil's top four operators. Furthermore, when it comes to taking an OTT service for the first time, 12% of all Brazilian consumers plan to subscribe to Esporte Interactive Plus, while 8% anticipate taking Clarovideo.

While the viewing of online pay-TV in Brazil promises to increase this Christmas, watching via mobile device is expected to dip slightly as the percentage of consumers planning to use a smartphone, tablet or laptop for TV during the holiday season fell from 51% in 2015 to 47% in 2016, suggesting more use of smart TVs with built in pay-OTT capability along with dedicated streaming devices such as Roku and Google Chromecast. Nonetheless, Brazilians are still more likely to use a smartphone to watch Christmas TV than consumers in any other market surveyed, with 35% planning to do so.

Vaghela notes: Competition in the Brazil marketplace from both international and local operators offers a fantastic prospect for viewers wanting great content. This market provides a great guide for other emerging and high-growth regions, and operators would do well to learn the lessons around mixing local and international content along with aggressive pricing strategies. Brazil offers an opportunity for pay-TV service providers with innovative bundling strategies to carve out a share of a market where having multiple OTT subscriptions may well become a common pattern.

LINK:	https://www.paywizard.com/brazilians-hungry-top-pay-tv-half-consumers-...
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