I was reminded of Queen’s song “I want it all--and I want it now” when I read a new survey about what TV viewers want to see--and what they’re willing to pay for. Findings released yesterday by Entertainment Media Research's 2008 Digital Entertainment Survey, which surveyed 1,608 consumers in the UK between the ages of 15 and 54, show that 70 percent of them would be open to ad-supported, on-demand content—if it meant the content would be free. So far, makes sense. The funny catch is that the same people who said they want ad-supported content ALSO want to be able to skip the ads !!! Now, as a TV viewer, I totally agree: the less ads I am subjected to, the happier I am. BUT, what if I am a provider of video services/platform/content/etc and I want to monetize my services?? Looks like I have to come up with some really creative approach to 1) inserting non-annoying ads into video content and 2) making them “un-skippable”.

Another notable (and counter-intuitive) learning from this survey is that the relationship between interesting on-demand content and the willingness to pay for it is not necessarily linear: there is some high-demand content that consumers are willing to pay for (live sports events and movies, for example) and then there is other type of high-demand content (comedy programs) that they don’t want to pay for. In that vein, one new development highlighted by the survey (and that we have seen on the market as well with the high take-up of digital music sites) is consumers’ interest and willingness to pay for live music concerts. With the drop in CD sales, the labels are looking for new revenue streams – they should pay attention to this emerging opportunity to monetize live concerts via on-demand channels. The caveat is, as the survey points out, that “ being „live‟ is critical: consumers are significantly less willing to pay for recorded concerts.”