Movie & TV streaming: Top trends for 2014
Things are hotting up in the movie and TV streaming space in New Zealand, with Quickflix leading the way since launching its online service.
So much so that Paddy Buckley, Managing Director of Quickflix, discusses where things are heading within the video on demand industry.
Video on demand is still a new area for many people, so what can we expect to see over the next little while?
TV to overtake the PC for online video...
According to recent research out of the US, people are now watching more online video through their TV than on their computers.
This indicates two things in particular: first, people prefer watching on their big screen, and second, smart TVs are now being connected more than ever.
No surprises there - nothing beats the main screen in your house and owners of smart TVs are increasingly aware of the online options now available to them and are choosing to connect their devices. It also helps that most of them are now WiFi-enabled so expect to see Kiwis jumping on this particular bandwagon. Many already have.
Mobile's important but main screen still dominates...
Meanwhile, over in the UK, new research is showing that just 1.5% of commercial TV viewing in 2013 was on tablets. That will come as a surprise to many, who are predicting that viewing content on mobile devices is where the action is.
These stats don't account for video on demand services but you get the point, which is that the big screen still represents the best viewing experience in your house.
At Quickflix, about 30% of viewing is done on mobile devices, and that's mainly TV series and kids shows. We have applications built in to all major brands of smart TV and we're also available on the 2 main game consoles, so main screen viewing is easy and is still what our subscribers like doing the most.
Our view of the world is that we want you to be able to watch on whatever device you like - large or small - so we also have apps available on Apple, Samsung and Sony tablets, as well as on Windows 8.
Best of all, you can watch 3 streams at the same time on the same account, so you if you're a hi-tech household, you can mix and match as much as you like.
In short: the main screen is still where the action is but second screen viewing is nice to have, brings added flexibility and will continue to grow.
Binge out...
Viewing habits are changing. Have you noticed that ad breaks now feel intrusive?
With today's technology, you're probably fast forwarding through them anyway. And you don't actually want to wait till 8pm on a Tuesday night for your favourite show - on demand viewing allows you to go back-to-back(-to back-to-back) so you can watch as much as you want whenever suits you. This is the way of the future and it's coming soon to a home near you.
In fact, it's already arrived.
