Netflix, Hulu Views Rise With Affluent Consumers

Wealthy-lady-AFrom subscription media to shoes, it’s no surprise that wealthier consumers have more of everything. As new research shows, however, income only tells part of the story when it comes to subscribers of Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, and similar online services.

For one, consumers living in U.S. households with incomes of $50,000 to $100,000 are more likely to pay for premium media (43%) than those living in homes with incomes of over $100,000 (37%), according to Nielsen.

Just 20% of those living in homes with incomes under $50,000 subscribe to a service like Netflix. 

The demographic findings are increasingly critical for marketers as all consumers spend more time watching premium fare online.

In fact, while YouTube continued to attract the lion’s share of video views in 2012, premium services made up a larger share of time spent online, Nielsen found.

In 2012, YouTube was responsible for over 130 million unique viewers per month, compared to Hulu’s 14.3 million monthly viewers and Netflix’s 10.8 million viewers.   

Compared to the roughly 31 billion minutes consumers spent watching YouTube every month last year, Netflix racked up 7.4 billion minutes, while Hulu was responsible for 4.2 billion minutes per month.

It’s also worth noting that more consumers (nearly 30%) are adding tablets to their TV time.

What are they doing on their gadgets? More popular than any other activity, a full 36% participate in social media (via tablet) while watching TV; over a third (33%) go shopping; and 20% look up information on products and services that they see advertised on TV.

1 comment about "Netflix, Hulu Views Rise With Affluent Consumers".
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  1. Michael Greeson from TDG, April 22, 2013 at 11:08 a.m.

    This is consistent with TDG's prior forecasts that, as long as truly cable-competitive OTT services do not exist, the segment that defines the use of S-VOD OTT will be more affluent customers who are prone to add as many video options to their arsenal as possible. Nielsen proves our predictions were correct, and that until a more complete competitive service (like that which Intel Media is promising) arrives, this income division will continue.

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