COMMENTARY

Streaming Consumers Take 6 Minutes Deciding What to Watch: A Waste of Time?

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 13, 2023

Content discovery has always been somewhat of a chore for TV consumers -- especially now, among streaming consumers.

LG Ad Solutions says it takes almost six minutes on average to select a piece of content after turning on a TV set. It did not offer up any earlier data on search times for comparison.

At the same time, 45% of streaming consumers agreed there are “too many content choices,” while another 40% say there is “confusion on where to find content.”

Is any of this good news? It might not be so much for TV consumers -- but it definitely is for TV streaming marketers. 

Tony Marlow, chief marketing officer of LG Ad Solutions, says in a release: "This presents a great opportunity for streamers to leverage smart TV home pages for content discovery.”

Marlow says much of this content discovery, naturally, comes from 40% of viewers who are pitched recommendations on their smart TV's home page. He reckons that all this activity will continue.

But perhaps just in the short term, I would guess.

There is, as many analysts know, a maturation of the streaming market. In addition, LG has said, in an earlier report, that consumers are cutting down on the number of subscription services.

Almost 50% of streaming consumers have canceled a service to save money. This comes from a survey of 750 U.S. consumers in March 2023. Another near 60% are willing to cancel a subscription after finishing their desired content.

Other analysts found that this is because of consumers focusing on one ongoing key TV series -- or perhaps one special big event movie that has already been released exclusively in theaters.

All this content discovery remains a major issue as streaming consumers can have anywhere from three to five services or more. That means switching between one service content discovery home page and another.

While there are a number of website-oriented services out there for consumers to figure out where TV shows are airing -- as well as those that offer suggestions, niche genres, and other key TV and movie content descriptors -- it is still a hodgepodge of ways and time spent in figuring out what someone might want to watch on a given night.