An interview with 4000 people: How has lockdown affected the way the UK watches video?

Hello, and welcome to the At Home Video Trends interview with me, Scott Lunn

I’m the Global PR and Communications Manager at Grabyo, a cloud-based video production platform based in London. We’ve taken it upon ourselves to find out exactly how the current pandemic and resulting UK lockdown has changed the way that UK consumers buy and use video services.

We’re going to use data from surveys we fielded to 2000 UK consumers in January 2020, and another 2000 UK consumers in July 2020, to conduct this interview. Let’s get started, shall we?

SL: Welcome, a representative sample of 4000 UK adults, to the At Home Video Trends interview.

UK: Thanks for having us.

SL: So to begin, how would you describe your TV and video viewing habits since lockdown began in March?

UK: A six-month binge-fest featuring Carole Baskin.

SL: Succinctly put. Speaking of Netflix, would you say you’ve been using more streaming services since being at home?

UK: Well, 1/3 of us who already pay for video have subscribed to at least one new streaming service since March, and 59% of us now pay for two or three services. What else could we have been doing?

SL: Very true. But once lockdown has completely ended, you’ll probably cull a few of your subscriptions, right?

UK: Actually no, 80% of us hopped on a Zoom and decided we’re going to keep them. 19% replied maybe to the invite. The other 1% straight up declined.

SL: Wow must have missed my invite. Tell me, what were the reasons for the additional services? Aside from the fact you were stuck at home, of course.

UK: Most people needed to keep the kids busy. Some said it was down to what their friends had said, and some said they were going to anyway.

SL: Great stuff. I wanted to ask about Disney+, as it launched in March when we were all going into lockdown. In January, only 13% of you were planning on buying the service, how many of you actually went ahead in the end?

UK: Well, let us start by saying how good is Hamilton by the way?! But yes, almost a quarter of our video customers now subscribe to the service.

SL: Legally, I have to agree with you. But that is interesting, 44% more subscribe to Disney+ than was predicted in January. So with all these new streaming services, how do you feel about pay-TV packages? Do we now have a nation of cord-cutters?

UK: We have discussed it, and are feeling non-committal. Let’s just say that in the next five years, only about 40% of our video customers are planning to pay for broadcast TV services.

SL: That’s higher than in January, only 26% of you said the same back then?

UK: Well we’ve had enough time stuck on the sofa to enjoy what TV has to offer. We reserve the right to re-change our minds.

SL: Of course. Well thank you for being here with us today, we hope everyone found this illuminating. Everybody stay safe and remember to wash your hands.

To download the full Grabyo At Home Video Trends 2020 (UK) report - click here.