Top 5 gripes in Streaming quality
Problems in smooth delivery contrast with the convenience of Streaming.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under Streaming
Buffering, ad placement and transitions, content availability, loading times and crashing are the top gripes for Streaming consumers, according to a recent survey.
Stable Research, which surveyed 1000 Streaming consumers, found viewers are lapping up streaming technology, but have high expectations when it comes to how the content is delivered to them.
Based on findings from research it concluded:
· Buffering is the biggest issue (50 per cent) followed by ad placement and transitions (41 per cent), content availability (32 per cent), loading times (29 per cent), crashing (24 per cent), content searchability (21 per cent) and image quality (19 per cent).
· 92 per cent of streaming service consumers are likely to change their viewing behaviour due to poorly inserted ads.
· On average 2.6 ads during one hour of streamed content is perceived as tolerable;
· 61 per cent of consumers prefer one long advertisement, as opposed to multiple shorter ads;
· Consumers want to be rewarded for the length of time they stay tuned to a video stream, with 71 per cent saying they should see fewer ads after “binging” on a program;
· The most popular place to watch streamed content is the living room (86 per cent), followed by the bedroom (57 per cent), while 15 per cent viewed streamed content while in the bathroom or on the toilet; and,
· Foxtel Go was ranked the best for ad placement, followed by SBS and then free-to-air operators.
Mark Johns CEO of streaming technologist Switch Media, whose clients have included Foxtel, SBS, ABC, FOX Sports, Network 10, Freeview said, “We are seeing the introduction of an ever-growing number of streaming services, an increase in original content and exclusive deals, the move towards aggregator sites offering free and paid content, and the debut of immersive content.
“But the biggest challenge is that viewers have a near zero-tolerance policy to poor streaming experiences and expect industry players to meet their growing demands, or face being left behind in a highly contested market.”
The research project involved a quantitative survey of over 1,000 Australian consumers who had streamed video, movie and television content. The study was centred around streaming service usage including the overall experience, opinions and issues around it, where it was being consumed and on what devices, advertising, and the role of virtual and augmented reality as a future proposition.
9 Responses
I get annoyed at the volume of the show, it is usually way down, so when I go back to live TV I have to remember to turn down the volume, my normal volume is around 20 out of a 100. Streaming volume has to be around, 40 to 60. Grrr
In my opinion Apple TV4K provides the best consistency for streamed apps and gets updated too which is not always the case for other companies products. The streaming apps can change as well, depending on what TV you have and the year of manufacture, as an example the SBS has at least 3 different interfaces for its streaming service especially if you own a Chinese made TV which probably uses the most outdated and basic apps. Not all products have a reliable WiFi especially TV’s, so finding a good streaming performer to plug into your investment is worth the effort.
Netflix really is the gold standard – it works on just 0.2MB/s bitrate and never interrupts the flow with ads. I refuse to watch the FTA catchup services because of the horrible placement of ads that are a completely different volume to the program and seem to appear at set times rather than a natural flow of a show.
Streaming services aren’t going to get away with the Foxtel style of showing ads whilst also being paid by subscribers.
If ads are inserted, there are other means to access content and I’ll stop spending my money.
I think consumers may be causing about 30% of their streaming problems themselves!! Like having several apps running at the same time?
Which wouldn’t be a problem if the NBN was being built correctly instead of being undermined by Murdoch’s mates in Govt.
But it’s not just bandwidth. Netflix, iview, and Google Play work fine here. Commercial FTA and SBS are atrocious. Same network link. The back end needs to be good too and FTA/SBS seem to be afraid of cannibalising their broadcast revenue and so don’t put any effort into their streaming catch-up back ends.
It’s pretty common knowledge that 42% of all statistics are made up.
I usually only stream paid stuff so ads aren’t an issue. When I do very occasionally stream one of the FTA’s for something specific I find it annoying that they play an add before playing live tv that has ads in it anyway. If it is live, no need for ads. If it is a replay, sure, show me an ad or 3 first.
This is a huge gripe of mine as well. Ads on live tv is just wrong. If you use a web browser to watch instead, at least with 7 and 10, you aren’t show an ad and you still have chromecast support (in chrome on android). It probably works better than the apps as well.
Just checked and 9now.com.au allows you to watch the live tv in a browser as well, and it won’t show you an ad before the live tv comes up which is great.
People are turning away from apps now, they don’t want so many on phones and particularly for low end phones it can slow things down a lot and take up precious storage. It’s great to see the networks are listening.
I would much rather bookmark a website than have to open an app.