OTT Subscription Purchase And Viewing Witness Spike During Covid-19: FLYX Survey

FLYX, a social network platform for OTT content, recently conducted a survey - User’s OTT Choices 2020 | 2020, OTT consumer survey with over 500 netizens in India. The survey revealed that there has been a spike in both purchase of OTT subscriptions and viewing hours amongst Indian users. Over 50% respondents shared that they have purchased new subscriptions during the pandemic. Users also revealed that there has been a 5x increase in those spending 16+ hours weekly and a 4x increase in those spending 12-16 hours weekly on OTT platforms. The survey is a deep dive into how streaming services are capturing consumer attention and related consumer behaviour and preferences. 

Discovering content: Discovering the right kind of content that suits your taste and choice has been an issue with consumers. The survey finds that in the midst of so many options, consumers prefer to discover new content based on recommendations. 53% of consumers primarily discovered new content based on recommendations from friends and family while 21% made the choice based on suggestions from the platform itself

*Source of Recommendation

Consumer behaviour and preferences: The findings further showcased that the most popular category of content watched on OTT platforms is movies and web shows. And comedy and drama emerged as the top two genres that are being consumed. Identifying consumers' preferred channels, the survey showcased that while Amazon Prime Video was the most subscribed to platform closely followed by Netflix and then Hotstar, the most popular platform amongst subscribers was Netflix with a 60% majority.

       Kind of content  

          Preferred Genre                                                                       

Steep rise in viewing hours: Owing to the pandemic that has led to restricted mobility and limited means of entertainment, the hours  spent watching content had increased dramatically during the pandemic with consumption hours of respondents in the 8-12 hours per week category seeing an over 2.5 times increase, the 12-16 hours viewing a 4 times increase and 16+ hours witnessing a whopping 5 times increase during lockdown. The survey unearthed that almost 50% of the respondents considered OTT content consumption as a social activity with friends and family.

 Viewing hours before and during pandemic 

“In these unprecedented times the breakthrough and growth witnessed by OTT platforms has been phenomenal. Our survey highlights how COVID has moved OTT from being a niche category, into the mainstream and how consumers of nearly all ages interact with video content on their platforms. Platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hotstar amongst others have seen an exponential rise in their subscriber base with India emerging as the second largest subscription television market in Asia Pacific. I believe that this trend will continue in times to come where content and cost will be the important differentiators amongst players. He further added, “An interesting finding from our survey is that consumers like to view recommended content. And that is the value that FLYX provides  -  reducing time in decision making and being able to find positive reviews from your social network, aligned to personal taste. We believe this will accelerate Flyx’s growth in the india market,” said Shashank Singh, Founder and CEO, FLYX on the research survey findings.

The most interesting finding was that 62% respondents were ready to go back to the theatres post the pandemic.

Survey methodology

FLYX undertook this survey in July and August 2020. The survey was conducted with respondents between the age group of 18-65 years who were students, professionals, business owners and self employed amongst others. The respondents primarily belonged to major cities of India including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata. Of these, 56% were male and 42% were female.