TVN Releases Results of VOD Consumer Research

Submitted by itvt on October 12, 2008 - 8:22pm

--Signs Deals with Overture Films, Lifetime Networks
VOD distribution services provider, TVN, has released the results of a national consumer research study which it says it commissioned in order to understand the impact of its barker videos on VOD usage. According to the survey:

71% of enabled subscribers have recently used VOD.
More than half of those users purchased VOD content.
Nearly 70% of users are very satisfied with VOD.
Satisfaction is strongest among VOD's heaviest buyers, 18-34 year- olds, and teenaged girls.
More teens (15-17) than adults are purchasing VOD movies, especially teen girls. However, 74% of teens ask permission from their parents before purchasing movies.
A large majority of VOD users will only watch transactional content in a group.
Free VOD movies are also usually watched as a group, with over half of respondents saying that they only watch them with others.
68% of respondents said that not having to leave the house is their number-one reason for buying VOD movies, with "speed" following closely behind.
Ease-of-use ranked high (fourth) among the top reasons for buying VOD movies.
66% of respondents said that TVN's barker would "highly influence" what they watched.

In other TVN Entertainment news:

The company says it has signed a comprehensive, multi-year VOD distribution agreement covering all new releases from Overture Films, the theatrical film unit of premium programming provider, Starz. According to TVN, as well as giving Overture access to all its VOD affiliates, the deal provides Overture with the rights to use the company's new iPRI metadata tool: the latter features a Web-based dashboard interface that is billed as allowing content owners to make real-time changes to on-demand titles, program synopses, actor bios, pricing, genre info and folder placement without workflow interruption or the expense of repitching. "We partnered with TVN because of their impressive North American footprint, covering more than 40 million cable and telco VOD subscribers," Marc DeBevoise, SVP of digital media, business development and strategy at Starz, said in a prepared statement. "In addition, TVN manages the operational and delivery details of distribution to their VOD affiliates, which allows us to focus on marketing our titles." Starz bills Overture Films as a fully integrated studio that produces, acquires, markets and distributes "prestigious motion pictures," such as "The Visitor," and the upcoming releases, "Traitor" (stars Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce), "Righteous Kill" (stars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino), and "Last Chance Harvey" (stars Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson).
The company has signed a three-year VOD services deal with Lifetime Networks, a US cable/satellite channel that targets a female demographic. According to the companies, the deal provides a framework under which Lifetime and its various networks--including Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network--will be able to launch new VOD initiatives, modify VOD programming options, and customize the metadata associated with their on-demand offerings. Lifetime plans to use a number of TVN services, including TVNow, which is designed to enable the quick turnaround of time-sensitive programming into VOD assets; the ADONISS asset management system; and the iPRI tool.
C-SPAN, a non-profit cable programmer that offers advertising-free coverage of politics and government (note: the company is backed by US cable operators), is using TVN's fast-turnaround service to make the presidential and vice-presidential debates available via its affiliates' VOD platforms. According to C-SPAN, the debates will be available on-demand within a few hours of their linear broadcast. "Making these historic debates available on-demand is an expansion of C-SPAN's efforts using technology to educate and inform American citizenry as they prepare to vote in November, and another example of cable's commitment to public service through their offering of the C-SPAN Networks," Peter Kiley, C-SPAN's VP of affiliate relations, said in a prepared statement.