Netflix is not a threat to pay-TV services in Poland in the short-term.
That, at least, is one of the conclusions that can probably be drawn from the latest consumer survey by the country’s Office of Electronic Communications (UKE). Dated November 29, 2019 and published earlier this week, it consists of three parts, with perhaps the most interesting being the one that looked at the preferences of private customers. This included a section on OTT services in which some of the findings were quite startling.
Firstly, it has to be said that despite the growing popularity of on demand services such as Netflix, only one in 10 respondents (10.5%), rising to 21.6% in the 15-24 age group, were actually familiar with the term OTT. This, of course, applies to a wide range of services including Skype, WhatsApp and Spotify, as well as Netflix and other video content.
What was more, over half (51.4%) of respondents did not use any OTT service, while among those that did only 8.7% opted for video.
The survey also found that almost three-quarters (71.6%) of OTT users usually did not pay for services, with video being dominant among those that were chargeable.
Significantly, in what were arguably some of the most important findings of the study, almost one in five (19.4%) respondents said they were considering switching from traditional cable/satellite TV services to OTT video. At the same time, only 15.1% of pay-TV users said they would opt for an additional video subscription, with the majority of these (42.3%) willing to pay up to PLN29 for a package.
It is also important to note that subscription price was by far the most important factor taken into account when choosing a video OTT service.
Where traditional pay-TV scored higher than OTT was in such areas as customer service. Providers of cable and satellite TV could also take heart in the fact that 40% of their customers did not plan any changes to services in the next 12 months.
Clearly the Polish market is changing, with OTT services like Netflix making an impact. However, cable and satellite-delivered pay-TV remains popular and will be around for a long time to come.
