Fewer consumers willing to pay for television

The number of subscribers willing to pay for TV keeps falling, especially among the younger generation and one-person households, a report said Tuesday.

According to research by the Korea Information Society Development Institute, the service termination rate reached 6.86 percent last year, up from 6.54 percent the year before. The rate had fallen from 5.97 percent in 2012 to 3.13 percent in 2015 before picking up again.

A breakdown by types of household showed that 9.17 percent of the people ending their subscriptions were 35 or younger, while 9.3 percent were people living alone.

Cancellations were more common among households with income of 1 million won ($931.54) or under at 11.23 percent, while the figure falls to 3.18 percent for those that make 5 million won or more.

The report pointed out that the rate of people who subscribe again after a pause was also falling.

Data showed that 67.48 percent of pay TV watchers who canceled their subscription in 2012 renewed the service the following year. For the 2016-2017 period, the rate was lower at 44.94 percent.

The number of subscribers who switched to other services also fell from 68.01 percent in 2015 to 34.67 percent in 2017.

“Growth in the pay TV market is slowing,” the report said. “Competition for subscribers is getting more and more intense.

“Service providers need to respond appropriately by finding out the differences in media usage by households, according to the changing characteristics of the market and consumers and the types of subscription,” it said.

Yonhap