DENVER — The notion that consumers have too many video app subscriptions and are not ready to take on new offerings from Disney, Apple, Warner Media and NBCUniversal is unfounded, according to Michael Greeson, president of research company TDG.
Presenting at the Pay TV Show Wednesday, Greeson said that only 10% of U.S. consumers in a recent survey indicated that they had too many subscriptions and were likely to cancel one soon.
TDG found that 66.5% say they have “just enough” video subscriptions.
“That doesn’t mean that when Disney+ comes along at $6.99 a month that they won’t add that service,” Greeson said. “It’s testing better than any other platform we’ve ever looked at.”
The analyst added that the concept of subscription fatigue is “a product of a legacy mindset” that video business executives should avoid being “locked into.”
Drilling down further, Greeson said in his presentation that the “channels” model adopted by Amazon, Roku and Apple has the greatest potential to control the video ecosystem going forward.
He noted that 55% of adult broadband users in America subscribe to Amazon Prime, and that 30% of direct-to-consumer apps are purchased through Amazon Channels.
“Amazon has huge resources,” he said. And it’s “not a matter of if” they take over a huge portion of the pay TV market, “but when.”
