The quality of the playback experience is a vital consideration for any streaming video provider: viewers abandon quickly, often remember having done so and avoid offending providers in the future, according to a survey conducted by Video analytics and optimization company, Conviva. They also found that different genres have different sensitivities. While entertainment viewers demand smooth playback but are forgiving on picture quality, news and information viewers demand both a great picture and uninterrupted streaming. Additionally, age demographics appear to be significant in establishing how deeply to focus on quality of experience.

In the Fall of 2015, Conviva surveyed 500 Internet video users across the United States to understand their sensitivity to playback experience on streaming videos across the entertainment, news/information, education, self-improvement and product research genres.

Key findings from Conviva’s Beyond Entertainment Report include:

• As many as one in five viewers will abandon poor experiences immediately, while significantly fewer will wait endlessly for the stream to come into focus
• Having had a poor experience one in five will never return to that service, while just one in ten will return regardless of the quality of experience
• Over ninety percent of respondents actively choose to return to services that deliver a superior experience
• There is significant variation across genres, as the immediacy, relevance and exclusivity of content impact patience and brand loyalty
• Different age groups have markedly different responses to quality of experience, with the oldest respondents being three times as likely to abandon a poor experience than the youngest

The paper reports the findings and provides commentary on what they mean for streaming video providers seeking to build, maintain and grow successful OTT businesses.