KOLs capture less than a tenth of HK video-viewing time

Top of the Charts provides a quick, mostly visual summary of a new piece of relevant research.

Report: ‘The Evolution of Hong Kong’s Video Landscape’ by Omnicom Media Group and Toluna.

Methodology: From May 24 to June 11, 2018, online questionnaires were used to survey a sample of 1,000 users aged 18 to 59 about their video consumption in the past seven days, from free TV, pay TV and digital video content platforms. Wave I and Wave II of the same survey were conducted in April 2016 and October 2016, respectively. 

Key takeaway:

Videos shared by friends are viewed the most, followed by those of online publishers. The popularity of videos produced by KOLs or celebrities is not as strong as formerly believed, according to the report. The share of time spent on them is only 9%, compared with 40% of time on viewing videos sourced by friends.

More takeaways:

Video viewing on social media is no longer limited to younger viewers. OMG and Toluna have observed a significant increase among mature audiences aged 45 to 59. This segment focused more on free TV platforms in the past. 

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OTT video services continue to soar, with weekly penetration and viewership rising from 38% to 55% and from 2.6 hours to 5.5 hours, respectively, thanks to an array of providers spanning from international leaders such as Netflix, Fox+ and HBO GO, to local production hubs such as ATV and OpenSky.

Despite increased consumption of digital video, traditional TV platforms have not witnessed a decrease in usage. MyTV SUPER is achieving its potential without cannibalising TVB, for example, implying that video consumption, in general, has increased. 

Audience duplication was more concentrated among local video platforms such as TVB, viuTV, Fantastic TV, YouTube, myTV SUPER, Viu and NowTV. Chinese video platforms have less audience duplication but Netflix seems to have gathered an audience base of loyal viewers with little duplication.

As video viewing on mobile devices becomes more common, it will become increasingly difficult for outdoor TV ads to capture attention.