Today’s Young OTT Consumers are the Paying Customers of Tomorrow

Entertainment consumption has gone through many evolutions. Music Hall to radio, weekly cinema visits to TVs in the home, analog to digital and SD to HD to name but a few. Each one adding a layer of convenience the incumbent service did not. Disruption is not a new thing.

My own experience in the 80’s and 90’s was of Pay TV offering a wealth of movies, great TV shows and most importantly sport that I couldn’t get through traditional free to air. Amongst my peers Pay TV was aspirational. It was one of the things you did when you got your first real job. It was a right of passage and having the big game at the weekend made you a popular guy!

However, the world has changed. Whilst I still see having Pay TV as something to aspire to there is a problem. The Internet has become the greatest disruptor in history, it’s hard to think of an area that it has not had an effect on, but entertainment consumption has to be one of the hardest hit.

In the past before you could access premium content you probably had to get your parents to pay for it and it was through one big screen in the living room. Now with the various ‘Go’ services and the likes of Netflix and Hulu consumers are getting access to more content on a 121 basis than ever before. This is especially true with Millennials. I can think of very few parents who don’t give their children a phone or tablet to watch video. TV always acted as a nanny but OTT services have taken this to a new level.

 And here’s the thing. The young consumers of today are the PAYING customers of tomorrow.

Now the college kid who’s just got his first real job has had access to all these services (along with pirated content) for years. Accessing premium sport via the companion ‘Go’ service is something they’ve done since before they left home (and probably took it with them to college), and each one will vote with their wallets in the future.

Providing poor quality of experience now (buffering, bad picture quality, poor UX) teaches these potential future customers where to go when they have money in their pockets. They are going to watch something and will gravitate to the services that work. The adoption of OTT is only going to increase and it’s the brands that get it right today that will succeed in the future.

 Build brand trust now through great quality of experience or lose them forever!