Video-streaming spend tops €1.3 bn by Irish customers

A SURVEY carried out by Citywest broadband and telecoms provider Pure Telecom found that the amount being spent by consumers in Ireland on video-streaming has risen to €1.3bn annually from €967m in 2021 – an increase of over €330m.

The nationally representative survey of 1,004 adults in Ireland was conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Pure Telecom.

It explored the potential impact of new and possible crackdowns on password-sharing by the world’s leading streaming providers, whereby additional charges will be applied to those who share passwords with people outside of their household.

The survey found that 26 per cent of video streaming subscribers in Ireland are sharing their subscription passwords with someone outside of their household, indicating that the streaming spend could increase as providers introduce additional charges for password sharing.

Pure Telecom’s research found that consumers in Ireland are feeling the pinch from having multiple video-streaming accounts.

The survey found that on average, adults in Ireland are paying for 2.4 video-streaming services each. The average adult currently spends €28.26 per month on video-streaming subscriptions, versus €22.57 per month in 2021. Gen X (adults between the ages of 43 and 58) are the highest spenders by generation, spending €33.36 per month on video streaming services.

Many are now choosing to reduce the number of video-streaming services they pay for to save money.

Some 38 per cent of those who pay for video-streaming report to have cancelled at least one subscription in the last 12 months to cut costs. Meanwhile, 17 per cent said they have cancelled to get better content elsewhere, while 16 per cent said they switched off as they had too many subscriptions already.

To alleviate the financial burden of subscription fees, 28 per cent of adults would be willing to watch ads on their chosen video-streaming channel if it meant they could get the content for free, while 14 per cent of adults said that they already use video-streaming channels with ads to get content for free.

Paul Connell, CEO, Pure Telecom, said: “Ireland’s population has well and truly embraced video-streaming and the market is continuing to grow – now far surpassing the €1bn mark in annual total consumer expenditure – and the trend of password-sharing that our research uncovered could see this rise considerably again.

“People know that they can’t get all of the top shows from just one provider and the majority are prepared (even if it is reluctantly) to pay out of fear of missing out.”

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