In the US, cable companies are consumers’ first choice when they order on-demand movies on a per-use basis, according to the NPD Group. However, renting movies through internet video on demand (iVOD) is making inroads with a small but growing group of consumers.
Led by Comcast in the first half of 2012, 48% of all paid video-on-demand (VOD) movie rentals were generated from cable VOD. With a 24% rental-order growth rate year-over-year, VOD on IPTV platforms is the fastest growing segment of the VOD market, outpacing even the iVOD growth rate of 15%.
“When it comes to paying for on-demand movies on an a-la-carte basis, cable companies are by far the primary conduit, due in large part to their widespread penetration and usage in Americans’ homes,” said Russ Crupnick, SVP of industry analysis for The NPD Group. “Even as iVOD, and VOD from satellite-media companies and telcos grow in popularity, cable companies continue to dominate the VOD movie rental market.”
According to NPD’s VideoWatch VOD report for the first half of 2012, paid- VOD movie rentals from cable company Comcast represented 23% of the VOD rental market, followed by satellite TV provider DirectTV at 14%, and Time-Warner Cable at 9%.
Apple iTunes’s iVOD service comprised 8% of paid video rental transactions, followed by telco company Verizon and satellite TV provider Dish Network at 7% each.
AT&T received the best customer ratings across a number of criteria, including site organisation, navigation and title availability.
Consumer audience demographics for iVOD movie rentals skew toward tech-savvy early adopters, primarily men (70%). In fact 44% of IVOD movie rental orders were made by men aged 25 to 44, compared to only 21% of cable VOD rental orders.
Data in report focuses only on VOD movie rental orders and does not include subscription VOD (sVOD), physical-disc-rental comparisons, or videos purchased via iVOD.
The information based on 11,773 VOD rental transactions generated from NPD’s VideoWatch Digital Tracker. Survey data was weighted to represent US population of individuals (age 13 and older) and tested for statistical significance at 95% confidence level.
