Online video viewers remain frustrated by streaming experiences

| 10 December 2018

Despite the surging worldwide growth and popularity of mobile streaming content and apps, viewers remain frustrated by their experiences, according to a new ten-country survey by Penthera.

Globally, 89% of the respondents streamed TV shows and movies on their mobile devices. Unfortunately, 88% experience some level of frustration while streaming video, stemming from the video taking too long to start up, buffering, annoying advertisements, increased monthly data costs, and public Wi-Fi issues. Penthera believes that these persistent frustrations could spell bad news for streaming video providers, because the cause viewers to close their apps and try again later (47%), explore other apps for their streaming needs (25%) and completely stop using of an app (20%) -- even if the issue is not the app or video provider's fault.

The UK was found to have the highest percentage of mobile video streamers in Europe, at 89%, but it also had the highest percentage of viewers who outright cancel their subscriptions after a frustrating experience (11%). Just under half (48%) of those surveyed stream video on their mobile device daily with 70% of Brazilians being daily streamers.

Buffering was the biggest frustration viewers experience around the world (51% reported dealing with it) and nearly two-thirds (68%) of panellists have used download functionality to combat playback issues. In Colombia, just over a fifth download mobile video so their kids can watch.

Penthera found that almost three-quarters of respondents said they would pay a monthly premium for download capabilities, with 19% willing to pay $5 or more per month.