Much is speculated about what really drives viewers to a streaming service. Is it the content or the viewing experience? The price tag or what you’re actually paying for? The viewing community or the customization possibilities?

A 2020 report by Verizon Media points at an interesting mix. When it comes to content, they want a good catalog where the teams they want to watch are well covered. They also ask for the best possible price, but they are also willing to pay more for a service that offers, for example, more access to view their favorite teams or an ad-free viewing experience. Incorporating ads into the experience may not be as one-dimensional as this may suggest; it’s not like the only options are either no ads or completely ad-supported. There are other alternatives for OTT streaming services. 

Contrary to what streaming tech providers want to believe, latency is not as important as they’d think. Only 43% of responders said that a real-time viewing experience was extremely important. However, 64% said the same for a high-quality picture. But despite the differences, the fact that almost half of the responders consider a low latency to be important is still something streaming companies should strive for. 

And when it comes to the community or the customization options that come along with a streaming service, the report did not indicate something in particular. However, it does point out that viewers often cancel if they don’t feel they’re getting their money’s worth. 

That’s a good opportunity to offer another type of service that could compensate, for example, for not offering total access to all of their favorite team’s games: maybe a live stadium exclusive viewing experience or backstage streaming access could work as well. In the end, what matters is to understand how fans consume content and cater to them depending on that.