Majority of online video users prefer VOD services

Consumers are increasingly watching online video content on their own terms, with on-demand service usage almost diffuse says Limelight’s latest State of Online Video report.

More than four-fifths of the online video users take VOD services.The report is based on a survey that collected data from 1,271 consumers aged 18-69 chosen at random located in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and found fundamentally that the shift in consumer online video viewing habits is changing rapidly.

It found that more than 83% of consumers watched on-demand video, an increase of 4% since April 2015. The percentage of consumers watching four or more hours of on-demand video a week increased to more than 36% as compared with 30% in April 2015.

A growing number of people were watching on-demand video are doing so on their TV, either through apps on smart TVs or connected devices such as Roku, Apple TV, Xbox One or Sony PS4. This, argued Limelight, was creating a challenge for content providers – ensuring broadcast quality to many devices – as consumers were likely to abandon an on-demand video if the quality was poor.