Netflix has yet to conquer the hearts and minds of the French, new research from media Analysis shows.
Despite a global march to Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) viewing on services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, France solidly bucks the trend with the lowest uptake of SVoD among countries surveyed.
This is despite having one of the highest uptakes of paid television. Data from Ampere’s latest survey shows that French homes are the least likely among 14 countries surveyed to take SVoD overall and the least likely to take SVoD with a companion pay offer.
On-going research by Ampere Analysis has shown that, in Europe and the US, homes are increasingly likely to supplement their viewing by combining SVoD with a pay TV service from a cable, satellite or IPTV provider or to take SVoD without a pay TV service at all, but the French still prefer traditional pay TV services and are not paying to also add SVoD services like Netflix.
Ampere Analysis polled 28,000 people across 14 markets to evaluate their TV consumption habits. The research reveals the French market’s unique character.
At 61 per per cent, 18 to 24-year olds are much more likely to have SVoD – the comparative figure for the total Internet audience is 31 per cent.
This compares favourably to countries like Spain, where 67 per cent of 18 to 24- year olds have SVoD compared to 51 per cent among the general population. It remains lower than other major markets like the UK at 81 per cent, Germany 78 per cent and the US 86 per cent.
Enthusiasm for SVoD is France is clearly driven by younger consumers who make up almost two thirds of France’s SVoD subscribers
Richard Broughton, Director at Ampere Analysis says: “A combination of factors has allowed French broadcasting groups to defend against the rise of subscription video-on-demand: Stricter local regulation demanding higher quotas of French and European content from on-demand service providers, extensive roll-out of advanced connected set-top boxes by French TV operators, and consumer demand for French language content (as opposed to the English-language content favoured by international VoD service providers) have all acted to favour incumbent local players.”
