Netflix dominates SVoD in Singapore; traditional TV still top for time spent

Netflix is the most popular SVoD service in Singapore by a significant margin, but traditional linear TV still holds the largest share of TV watching (36%) and accordingly accounts for the highest proportion of TV spend (21%), according to Dataxu research.

Looking at total TV viewing time in Singapore, paid subscription services such as Netflix follow closely behind linear TV at 31% of total TV viewing, with smart TV (which includes video-on-demand services) accounting for 24% and connected-TV devices such as Roku accounting for 8%.

Unsurprisingly, younger demographics index higher for paid subscription services than traditional TV. SVoD services account for nearly half (43%) of total TV viewing for those aged between 18 and 24, versus 37% for the 25-34s, 30% for the 35-44s, 23% for the 45-54s, 18% for the 55-65s and just 13% for those aged 66 and above.

Similarly, the majority of those who watch traditional TV are aged 66+ (67%).

Netflix accounts for nearly half (46%) of SVoD subscriptions in Singapore, versus 10% for Amazon Prime, the second most popular. Local services StarHub, Singtel and Toggle accounted for 9%, 6% and 3% of total subscriptions.

Singaporeans have, on average, access to 1.17 paid subscription services. More than half (56%) of those surveyed claim they have access to 1 or 2 paid subscription platforms, with the minority (2%) claiming to have more than 4.

The research, commissioned by Dataxu in partnership with Sapio, brings together insights from a total of 1003 consumers and 106 businesses in Singapore, of which 56 were media agencies and 50 were brands/advertisers. The interviews were conducted online by Sapio Research in March 2019 using an email invitation and an online survey.

As viewing is fragmenting across different forms of TV, advertising spend is following

According to media agencies and brands, a majority (21%) of TV investment is spent on traditional linear TV. However, this is very closely followed by investment in newer forms of TV inventory such as connected TV (19%), video on demand (16%), OTT (14%) and addressable TV (13%).

Spend on advanced TV — which encompasses several forms of streaming TV content including connected TV, linear addressable and video on demand (VOD) addressable — is expected to increase over the next five years, according to 90% of respondents.

However, the research highlighted an issue with ad recall in addressable TV. Of the 60% of consumers who claim to have been targeted by personalised ads on TV, only 35% can recall what the ad was related to.

Nevertheless, just under two-thirds (62%) of consumers surveyed stated they had a better experience with advertisers now that ads are becoming better tailored to their likes and habits.

Furthermore, a majority of consumers (61%) surveyed stated they would be at least somewhat happy to share their data in an anonymous way in order to see personalised ads and offers, whereas 65% would be willing to share their data in exchange for free content.