69% Percent of Indian Consumers are Frustrated with Navigating Content on Streaming Video Services, says Accenture Report

Nearly seven-in-ten subscribers to multiple streaming services in India expressed frustration with their viewing experiences, according to a new report from Accenture (NYSE: ACN), and 46% of those surveyed indicate they spend more than six minutes searching for something to watch.

The “Streaming’s Next Act: Aggregators to play a starring role in making consumers happier” report surveyed 6,000 consumers globally to understand their preferences, beliefs, and behaviors on their video content streaming experiences. In addition to the challenge of finding something to watch, consumers in India also think more than 60% of the content they are paying for is not relevant to them. Furthermore, 81% of those surveyed in India say they wish their profile from one service could easily be shared with another service that may offer them better, more personalized content.

Saurabh Kumar Sahu, managing director and lead for Communications, Media and Technology practice, Accenture in India said, “As the video streaming segment has matured, consumers are increasingly finding the experience to be complicated, expensive and hard to use. Evolving consumer preferences and tough economics will create challenges for video streaming platforms. To win in this competitive space, the ecosystem needs a major reset, in addition to providing consumers greater control over their viewing experience.”

Accenture’s research also indicates that while consumers care more about the content delivered by streaming services, they find the navigation experience with the growing number of services to be increasingly frustrating. Content aggregators can address this concern by unifying access across streaming services through application software, services and data-sharing agreements. Aggregators can also foster flexibility and personalization for viewers by serving as a single platform with curated content that enables them to select exactly what they want to watch.

“Till now, most Indian OTT platforms have tried to differentiate through content and majority of their investments have gone into flagship titles. With changing viewing patterns, this needs to change and factor in scenarios like shared viewing. For the next phase of growth, these platforms need to focus on improving consumer experience and product features,” said Neeraj Sharma, managing director – Communications, Media and Technology, Accenture in India.

The report also offers the following considerations for companies in the streaming entertainment ecosystem—from video, music and podcasts to gaming—so they can start on a journey of deeper consumer relationships:

Consider your play in the aggregated world. Determine if you want to be an integrator or the integrated, so you can either shape distribution deals to entice subscription video on demand (SVOD) and advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) services to participate or partner with the entities vying to be the preferred integrator.

Start planning for a distributed data model. Invest in data privacy and make that commitment known to your consumers, so they are confident sharing data that is critical for integration and personalization services.

Be ready to stretch. Think beyond SVOD and AVOD services to consider music services, podcast and e-book services, video games, home security, food delivery services and more. 

Engage in experimentation. Players with data-driven experimentation at the core of how they operate will be far more ready and nimble to adapt to changing consumer preferences.