New Zealand lags on video uptake

Data caps to blame

"The survey captures the changing dynamics of New Zealand consumers in the home and online. While low bandwidth activities remain the most popular internet activities on both smartphone and PC, we are witnessing a substitution effect between devices as there is an increased uptake of features such as navigation and social networking on smartphones and a decrease in these activities on traditional devices.  In addition we continue to see low uptake of higher bandwidth activities on each device with streaming TV and downloading video among the most underutilised activities " says Shane Minogue, market analyst at IDC.

The survey highlights trends in video adoption from both an international perspective as well as from the type of video viewing undertaken (e.g. streaming/downloading/viewing user generated video).  The results indicate that although New Zealand has caught up to some other countries in the adoption of video, it continues to lag behind the worldwide average.

“The study shows that the greatest catch up has been witnessed in user generated video suggesting that constraints in New Zealand of content offerings and data caps may be holding other formats [downloading and streaming video online] back. We have already seen data caps being increased by the majority of providers and a number of new content offerings enter the market, however at present more needs to be done to really motivate consumers to go online and interact with video” adds Minogue.