The French consumer is presented with a plethora of video sources from catch-up TV, through streaming and the cinema, but has yet to find a satisfactory model for consuming content.
Speaking at the Arris Video Leadership Forum in Berlin, Martin Kaiser, director, Roadmap Service Solutions, fixed and mobile, Bouygues Telecom presented the findings of anthropologists who were asked to examine viewer behaviour.
DVDs, a relative dinosaur in the age of VOD, were considered to be too costly, too difficult to find, time consuming, but actually easy to watch.
Video on demand was said to offer too little choice, despite the number of stores, and bringing many quality of service problems.
The PVR was annoying to use with hard disk issues and functionality that varies from operator to operator.
Where French homes are turning is catch-up TV, which is used by 66% of French households. Illegal streaming is used by 21%.
“All those things we talk about like video on demand the customers are not used by the customer when we go to their homes,” said Kaiser.
Customers argue they want the video version of Spotify and are willing to pay €15 per month for such a service. The nearest to this is Canal Play, but Kaiser said when the site was visited the movies were considered to be too old “It’s really deceptive for our customers, so were not there yet, in France”.
