During the past few months, Analysys Mason has invited clients and site visitors to complete a survey on consumer content and applications in exchange for a free collection of articles on various media topics. Having now received more than 1000 responses, we wanted to thank those who participated and share some of the survey results.
Emerging technologies, non-telco content strategies and online video top the list
Analysys Mason received 1024 completed surveys from respondents in locations ranging from Austria to Wallis and Futuna, which highlights the global nature of our audience. Nevertheless, the top ten countries of origin for our respondents were: the UK (20.3%), the USA (6.3%), France (5.7%), Germany (3.5%), Italy (3.4%), Spain (3.3%), Ireland and Sweden (both 3%), India (2.8%) and Poland (2.5%). Most responses came from service providers, but vendors, regulators, financial institutions, consultancies and players in the IT, media and education sectors also participated.
As can be expected from a survey for our Consumer Content and Applications research programme, the respondents’ highest priorities for 2009 are: seeking growth opportunities within media and content (indicated by 61.2% of respondents), the impact of new technologies on media and content (59.5%), the monetisation of media and content services (53.7%), and understanding the impact of the downturn (48.3%). As their core businesses of voice and access services become increasingly commoditised, telcos have recognised that adopting an effective content strategy represents an opportunity to increase revenue and achieve competitive differentiation, even in difficult economic conditions. For example, during 2008, Belgacom managed to increase the size of its IPTV subscriber base by two thirds to more than half a million and increase ARPU, thus enabling it to double its TV revenue despite the recession. The EUR86 million generated by Belgacom’s TV service in 2008 was more than sufficient to offset the EUR55 million decline in its consumer fixed voice revenue over the year.
The key high-level themes of interest among respondents were the convergence of telecoms and media (indicated by 71.7% of respondents), media and content services (71.6%), consumer behaviour (52.9%) and the pricing and bundling of services (52.3%). In terms of more-specific topics, respondents were particularly interested in emerging technologies (which scored an average of 3.73 out of 5, on a 5-point scale where 5 indicated a high level of interest and 1 signified little or no interest), non-telecoms players’ content and media strategies (3.69) and online video (3.60). Surprisingly, social networking and user-generated content was ranked tenth, with a score of 3.18, despite all of the media attention given to the topic, followed by m-commerce (3.17) and cable TV providers’ strategies (2.97).
Figure 1: Key topics of interest for survey respondents [Source: Analysys Mason, 2009]
One of the aims of the survey was to find out about our clients’ needs, and to ensure that we meet them. We have recently published various pieces on the key themes and topics identified by respondents, including:
Among our forthcoming publications, look out for our mobile media and entertainment forecasts for Western Europe, highlights from our consumer research, as well as a Perspective on online video and a report on the monetisation of pay-TV services.
