Video Consumers Still Searching for Deals, Survey Finds

NEW YORK, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. consumers continue to cite the price of video services as the most important factor in evaluating offerings from competing suppliers, a trend that will put even more pressure on telcos, cable operators, and satellite video providers to squeeze margins to gain market share, according to the latest report from Heavy Reading Insider (www.lightreading.com/insider), a paid research service of TechWeb's Light Reading (www.lightreading.com).

Video Services: Price Remains the Consumer Hot Button presents and analyzes results from Heavy Reading's second annual survey of U.S. consumers regarding their current and planned purchase of video services. The survey, conducted in the fourth quarter of 2009, includes responses from more than 400 consumers across the U.S., and measures key indicators of consumer attitudes and activities, including willingness to change operators, importance of advanced video features, preference for type of operator (cable, telco, satellite), and current and expected use of Internet video as an alternative to conventional video programming services.

For a list of companies covered in this report, please see:

http://img.lightreading.com/lri/pdf/lri0210_companies.pdf

"The latest survey shows some good news for telcos regarding video services," says Denise Culver, contributing analyst to Heavy Reading Insider and author of the report. "Telcos are now seen by U.S. consumers as an equal option to cable operators and satellite providers, which wasn't the case only a year ago." More than 19% of respondents to the latest survey said they would choose a telco as their next video supplier if they were to switch services, compared with only 13% in the 2008 survey.

Yet despite the arrival of more competition in the consumer video services market, customers aren't necessarily rushing to change over to a new supplier, Culver notes. "Only about 5 percent of respondents said they were very likely to change video service providers in the next 12 months, while about half of all respondents said they were not likely to switch," she reports. "That suggests it will be tougher for video service providers to boost their market share significantly in the next year."

Other findings of Video Services: Price Remains the Consumer Hot Button include the following:

• More than a third of U.S. consumers surveyed don't know what type of provider they would choose if they were to switch services, indicating that current marketing campaigns are not as effective as they could be.
• About 30 percent of users who changed providers in the past year said they did so because of price issues.
• Nearly 45 percent of survey respondents said they chose their current video service provider because they received a special offer for discounted service.
• Service dependability and price rated as the two most critical factors in choosing a video service provider.

Video Services: Price Remains the Consumer Hot Button is available as part of an annual single-user subscription (12 monthly issues) to Heavy Reading Insider, priced at $1,995. Individual reports are available for $900 (single-user license).

To subscribe, or for more information, please visit: www.lightreading.com/insider. For more information on all Insider services, please visit www.lightreading.com/research.

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About Light Reading

Founded in 2000, Light Reading (www.lightreading.com) is the leading online media, research, and focused event company serving the $3 trillion worldwide communications market. Lightreading.com is the ultimate source for technological and financial analysis of the communications industry, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content, and reputation. Light Reading's research arms, Heavy Reading and Pyramid Research, provide the most comprehensive communications research, market data, and technology analysis in close to 100 markets around the world. Light Reading produces nearly 20 targeted communications events including TelcoTV, and TelcoTV Asia, Ethernet Expo New York and Ethernet Europe, and The Tower Summit @ CTIA, as well as focused one-day events tailored for cable, mobile, and wireline executives in the US, Europe, India, and China. Light Reading was acquired by United Business Media in August 2005 and operates as a unit of TechWeb.

About TechWeb

TechWeb (techweb.com/aboutus), the global leader in business technology media, is an innovative business focused on serving the needs of technology decision-makers and marketers worldwide. TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed media brands in the business technology market. Today, more than 13.3 million* business technology professionals actively engage in our communities created around our global face-to-face events Interop, Web 2.0, Black Hat and VoiceCon; online resources such as the TechWeb Network, Light Reading, Intelligent Enterprise, InformationWeek.com, bMighty.com, and The Financial Technology Network; and the market leading, award-winning InformationWeek, TechNet Magazine, MSDN Magazine, Wall Street & Technology magazines. TechWeb also provides end-to-end services ranging from next-generation performance marketing, integrated media, research, and analyst services. TechWeb is a division of United Business Media, a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.

* 13.3 million business decision-makers: based on # of monthly connections

About United Business Media Limited

UBM (UBM.L) focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetization of B2B communities and markets. UBM's businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities – from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewelry traders, from farmers to pharmacists – with integrated events, online, print and business information products. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organized into specialist teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. For more information, go to http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com.

SOURCE Heavy Reading Insider