Netflix and Hulu have both reported massive new subscription growth. And from HBO Now to CBS All Access to Sling TV, a flurry of new over-the-top choices have been added by programmers and distributers. Still, somehow, in its latest Consumer Entertainment Index, Arris claims that the percentage of North American survey respondents reporting regular OTT use dropped from 88 percent in 2014 to 86 percent this year.
Sandy Howe, senior VP of global marketing at Arris, said the decline has a lot to do with the fact that OTT services haven't addressed consumer demand for broadcast programming, which is still popular. Of course, there wasn't a lot of broadcast content on OTT services in 2014, either, leaving one to wonder how the global study could find that OTT usage actually declined year-over-year. Howe didn't offer any further explanation.
For its part, Arris--a distributor of networking products to cable operators and others--also found that consumers are demanding increased access to broadband. The pay-TV vendor had a UK research firm conduct a global survey of 19,000 consumers for its report. You can read more about it here on FierceOnlineVideo.