Video-on-demand services becoming more popular

Two-thirds of Irish adults have watched video-on-demand or VOD during the last six months with daily consumption rising by 5 per cent, according to a new survey.

The study, which was compiled by Nielsen on behalf of the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Ireland, reveals that younger people are more likely to watch streamed and downloaded content. As many as 87 per cent of those in the 16-34 age category said they had viewed video-on-demand recently and the percentage of those in this age group who reported watching more VOD than television jumped from 45 per cent to 56 per cent.

Older adults were also found to be keen VOD viewers with 47 per cent of those aged over 45 admitting to having watched it during the last six months.

IAB and Nielsen define VOD as streamed, downloaded content that is viewed on a range of devices, including Smartphones, notebooks, tablets, smart TVs, PCs and games console.

Perhaps not surprisingly, free services are the most popular platforms and deliver the highest reach with 86 per cent of video-on-demand viewers saying they had viewed content provided by free services from broadcasters such as the RTE, TV3 and Channel 4 as well as YouTube and other social channels.

Two-thirds of those who identified themselves as video-on-demand viewers said they watched at least one hour of such content a day, up from 62 per cent six months earlier.

Laptops remain the preferred device for watching streamed or downloaded content with 43 per cent of VOD viewers saying they consumed programmes via notebooks. This compares to 14 per cent who watched VOD content through their Smartphones, an additional 14 per cent who viewed it via tablets, and 12 per cent who consumed it using PCs.

Downloading/buffering issues were reported to be a barrier to viewing VOD content in full for respondents outside of Dublin.