MDA Media Consumer Experience Study 2015

1. Executive Summary 2. Research Objectives and Methodology 3. Satisfaction Indices 4. Media Consumption Habits 5. Mediacorp and Pay TV

© Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 3 Executive Summary Satisfaction Indices • Consumers’ overall satisfaction with media services was 76.6% in 2015, an improvement from 75.7% in 2014. In particular, satisfaction with the quality and variety of media content, and customer service standards had increased. • Satisfaction with Singapore’s content standards also rose in 2015, from 72.4% in 2014 to 74.1% in 2015.

Media Consumption Habits • Watching Free-to-Air TV remained the top media activity in terms of time spent at 17.4 hours weekly in 2015, a slight increase from 17.0 hours in 2014. • Respondents generally relied on traditional media to discover TV shows, and digital media for online content.

Free-to-Air and Pay TV • Amongst respondents who spent time watching Mediacorp’s Free-to-Air TV, 99.1% watched Mediacorp channels at least once a month, up from 89.7% in 2014. • 68.2% of consumers said they subscribed to Pay TV services in 2015, down from 69.3% in 2014.

The Media Consumer Experience Study (MCES) is an annual study commissioned by the Media Development Authority (MDA) of Singapore and aims to:

• Measure consumers’ satisfaction with media services and content standards; • Analyse consumers’ media consumption patterns across platforms and devices from 2011 to 2016; and • Identify and analyse key changes in consumers’ media preferences.

Conducted by Degree Census Consultancy Pte Ltd, the survey sample consisted of 2,000 Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents aged 15 to 65 years, representative of the Singapore population aged 15 and above. Responses were gathered from October to December 2015 via face-to-face interviews lasting about 45 minutes each.

Note: • Throughout this report, figures in blue indicate a statistically significant increase from the previous year, while figures in red indicate a statistically significant decrease. • Results from a sample size of less than 30 respondents should be interpreted with caution. © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 6 3. Satisfaction Indices

© Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 7 Satisfaction with media services rose from 75.7% in 2014, scoring 76.6% in 2015 • The Overall Media Satisfaction Index (OMSI) is an indication of consumers’ satisfaction with media services, and comprises the five components listed below. • An OMSI score of 76.6% indicates that in general, consumers ranged from being slightly satisfied to satisfied with the media services available in Singapore.

Quality of Receiving Media 78.3%

Variety of Reliability Media Overall of Media Content Media Services 74.5% Satisfaction 74.9% Index (OMSI) 76.6%

Quality of Customer Media Service Content Standards 74.8% 74.9% © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 8 Rise in satisfaction with quality and variety of media content, and customer service standards contributed to OMSI improvement

Chart 1: Overall Media Satisfaction Index and components (%) Reliability of Media Services

Quality of Receiving Media

78.3

Customer Service Standards 76.6 76.1 75.7

Overall Media Satisfaction Index 74.9 74.9 74.8 Variety of Media Content 74.5

Quality of Media Content

2013 2014 2015 © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 9 Note: The introduction of the broadcasters’ OTT services for the first time in 2015 led to the drop in the Reliability of Media Services component of the OMSI. Quality of Receiving Media: Satisfaction with Mediacorp’s Free-to-Air TV was the highest • Amongst the three broadcasters, consumers were most satisfied with the picture and audio quality of programmes on Mediacorp Free-to-Air TV. • Satisfaction with the quality of reception of Internet videos was the only platform that saw an increase from the past year, from 77.6% in 2014 to 78.0% in 2015.

Chart 2: Satisfaction with Quality of Receiving Media (%)

82.7 82.4 81.6 81.1 80.7 80.4 80.4

78.7 78.3 78.0 77.6 77.5 76.9 75.8 76.0

Mediacorp TV StarHub TV Singtel TV Internet video Radio 2015 2014 2013 © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 10 Reliability of Media Services: Mediacorp’s Free-to- Air TV also scored the highest for reliability • More than 8 out of 10 consumers were satisfied with the reliability of Mediacorp Free- to-Air TV’s media services. • For the first time in 2015, consumers were also asked for their satisfaction with the broadcasters’ OTT platforms’ reliability, in which Toggle scored the highest at 71.7%.

Chart 3: Satisfaction with Reliability of Media Services (%)

83.3 83.1 80.6 78.8 80.2 80.3 79.8 77.2 76.3 71.7 70.5 69.4

Mediacorp TV StarHub TV Singtel TV Mediacorp's Toggle Singtel TV GO StarHub Go 2015 2014 2013 © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 11 Note: The introduction of the broadcasters’ OTT services for the first time in 2015 led to the drop in the Reliability of Media Services component of the OMSI. Customer Service Standards: Consumers remained most satisfied with Singtel TV’s customer service • Satisfaction with Singtel TV’s customer service standards remained relatively stable, scoring 76.5% in 2015. • Consumer satisfaction with the customer service standards of all three broadcasters increased from 2014 to 2015.

Chart 4: Satisfaction with Customer Service Standards (%)

77.6 77.1 76.5 75.8 74.7 74.8 73.5

72.2

70.6

Singtel TV StarHub TV Mediacorp TV 2015 2014 2013 © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 12 Quality of Media Content: Consumers most satisfied with newspapers’ content quality • Newspapers’ ranking improved from sixth in 2014 to top in 2015, a reversal of the statistically significant drop in satisfaction in 2014. • Satisfaction with the quality of Video content saw the largest increase from 2014 to 2015 – an increase of nearly 10% from 63.2% to 73.2%.

Chart 5: Satisfaction with Quality of Media Content (%)

78.5 81.9 78.9 78.3 78.1 81.3 76.0 76.6 77.5 76.1 76.3 76.3 75.7 74.8 75.7 73.5 74.4 75.1 77.1 73.4 73.3 72.5 74.6 72.6 73.3 71.7 71.0 71.8 70.1 71.2 69.1 68.2 66.9 68.2 68.3 63.2

2015 2014 2013 © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 13 Variety of Media Content: Satisfaction with the variety of Internet content ranked first • Satisfaction with the variety of content available online remained high at 79.3%. • Similar to quality, satisfaction with Videos’ content variety also increased the most, from 62.5% in 2014 to 70.4% in 2015.

Chart 6: Satisfaction with Variety of Media Content (%)

81.5 79.3 80.6 77.2 78.3 77.8 78.4 77.8 75.3 77.4 76.7 76.6 77.1 75.0 74.3 76.4 75.4 74.3 73.4 72.9 73.3 74.3 72.4 71.8 72.3 72.5 71.6 71.2 70.4 69.5 71.2 69.0 67.1 67.6 68.4 62.5

2015 2014 2013 © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 14 Satisfaction with local content standards increased from 2014 to 2015 • More than 7 in 10 consumers (74%) were at least slightly satisfied with local content standards in 2015.

Chart 7: Overall Content Standards Satisfaction Index (%) 80.7

74.1 72.4

2015 2014 2013

2015 2014 2013 © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 15 Consumers most satisfied with the content standards for Free-to-Air and Pay TV • Satisfaction with Free-to-Air TV overtook that of Videos to rank top with 79.1% of consumers being at least slightly satisfied with Free-to-Air TV’s content standards.

Chart 8: Personal Satisfaction with Content Standards (%) 0.7 Free-to-Air TV 2.7 17.2 24.5 46.8 7.8 0.9 Pay TV 2.6 18.3 21.2 47.3 9.4 1.2 Videos 2.5 19.0 23.3 45.2 8.7 1.1 Video-on-Demand 2.9 18.6 23.5 45.1 8.5 1.1 Films 3.1 20.3 19.5 46.1 9.5

1.1 Video Games 3.4 22.7 22.7 40.8 8.7

1.7 Local Publications 3.3 23.1 19.2 42.9 9.4 1.7 Arts 4.3 24.7 19.3 40.4 8.7 1.5 Imported Publications 3.0 26.9 19.7 39.3 9.1

Very Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Slightly Dissatisfied Neutral Slightly Satisfied Satisfied Very Satisfied © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 16 Awareness and usage of the Content Classification Systems remained relatively consistent in 2015 • Amongst the media platforms, only Video Games’ content classification system saw a statistically significant drop in usage.

Chart 9: Awareness of Content Classification Systems (%) Chart 10: Usage of Content Classification Systems (%) 87.5 44.7 81.9 Films 46.7 63.1 46.8 85.6 43.1 86.0 Free-to-Air TV 42.8 70.0 44.6 70.4 45.8 73.2 Pay TV 45.7 58.0 44.5 65.2 40.0 67.0 Videos 40.3 50.1 40.2 57.7 43.0 60.7 Video-on-Demand 42.5 43.1 42.6 57.0 35.1 58.8 Video Games 39.2 39.5 42.3 45.2 35.2 44.5 Local Publications 37.1 44.5 43.3 44.6 32.4 41.9 Imported Publications 36.5 35.9 41.9 44.3 32.5 44.7 Arts 35.9 34.8 39.8

2015 2014 2013 © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 17 Consumers felt that it was most important to rate television content • Nearly 8 in 10 (79.2%) consumers felt that it was at least slightly important to rate Pay TV content.

Chart 11: Importance of Content Classification System (%)

Pay TV 3.0 4.0 2.9 11.0 17.7 34.3 27.3

Free-to-Air TV 3.0 4.1 3.0 11.2 15.5 34.7 28.5

Films 3.2 4.2 3.4 11.5 14.4 33.7 29.8

Videos 2.9 3.9 3.3 14.8 14.7 33.0 27.5

Video-on-Demand 3.0 4.2 3.5 15.6 15.5 32.9 25.5

Video Games 3.5 4.3 3.4 15.3 16.1 32.3 25.3

Local Publications 4.5 6.6 3.1 16.5 16.3 30.2 23.0

Imported Publications 4.5 6.7 2.9 16.9 16.1 29.4 23.7

Arts 4.7 6.9 4.2 17.8 17.1 27.7 21.8

Very Unimportant Unimportant Slightly Unimportant Neutral Slightly Important Important Very Important

Chart 12: Time Spent on Media Activities (hours) 17.4 Watch Mediacorp Free-to-Air TV 17.0 17.2 17.3 Access media-related apps and websites 17.2 12.9 15.7 Access non-media-related apps and websites 15.3 12.8 5.8 Access news 4.9 4.1 Table 1: Time spent on Mediacorp and online media by age 5.5 Listen to music 4.9 4.4 Watch MediaCorp TV Access media-related apps (hours) and websites (hours) 5.3 Age Listen to the radio 4.8 4.8 2015 2014 2015 2014 2.7 Watch StarHub TV 2.3 15-19 15.2 14.2 33.3 24.0 4.5 2.6 20-29 12.2 12.9 27.2 21.2 Play video games 2.1 1.7 30-39 14.9 15.8 18.2 15.3 1.9 Watch videos 1.9 1.2 40-49 18.4 17.3 13.3 12.6 1.6 50-59 21.5 20.8 8.3 11.9 Watch Singtel TV 0.9 2.0 60-65 25.7 22.4 6.1 11.4 1.4 Read books 1.8 2.0 1.0 Watch movies 0.7 1.7 0.4 Read magazines 0.8 1.2 2015 2014 2013 © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 20 Note: Time spent figures were based on the total sample (n = 2000). 6 in 10 consumers accessed content using multiple devices at the same time • More than 8 in 10 (82.3%) of consumers multitasked by watching TV and using their mobile phones for calls or instant messaging at the same time. • Mobile devices featured strongly in multitasking habits, and was used for all top paired activities.

Chart 13: Use multiple devices at the same time (%) Table 2: Top paired multitasking activities 64.8 61.7 Primary Activity Secondary Activity %

Using mobile devices to Watching TV 82.3% WhatsApp/ text/ call Using mobile devices to Watching TV 74.3% WhatsApp/ text/ call Using mobile devices to Using PC/ laptop to go online 68.7% WhatsApp/ text/ call Using mobile devices to Listening to music/ radio 66.2% WhatsApp/ text/ call Using mobile devices to go Watching TV 60.6% online

2015 2014 © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 21 Consumers relied on traditional media to discover new TV shows, while digital media aided the discovery of online content

Chart 14: Platforms used to discover new content (%)

70.1 10.0 TV shows 6.6 3.3 3.0

24.9 21.1 Movies 13.1 11.5 5.9

34.6 17.7 Online content 17.1 13.8 10.7

© Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 23 More consumers watched Mediacorp Free-to-Air TV at least monthly in 2015 compared to 2014 • Amongst respondents who watched Mediacorp’s Free-to-Air TV, almost all (99.1%) watched Mediacorp TV at least monthly, up from 89.7% in 2014. • In general, consumers also watched Mediacorp programmes more frequently on YouTube (26.4% watched monthly) compared to Toggle (12.4%).

Chart 16: Frequency of watching Mediacorp programmes (%)

0.5 Free-to-Air TV 0.5 4.4 18.1 76.6

YouTube 67.8 5.8 2.2 7.7 16.5

Toggle 75.3 12.3 4.6 3.7 4.1

Not at all Rarely Over the last month Over the last week Yesterday

© Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 24 Language subtitles remained the top factor in encouraging consumers to watch Mediacorp TV • In addition to language subtitles, making Mediacorp programmes more accessible on digital media would also spur viewership.

Chart 17: Programme features encouraging Mediacorp consumption (%) 39.7 Language subtitles 52.3 54.4 19.4 Available on mobile platforms 32.5 30.2 18.2 On time shift 17.8 31.9 15.9 Internet live streaming 10.9 33.9 15.6 In high definition 34.1 49.2 12.6 In dual sound 21.0 40.1 11.6 On-demand via Internet 11.3 19.3 10.0 Available for easy recording 24.1 28.1 7.7 In 3D 13.2 23.1 6.7 On-demand via TV 6.2 19.5 2015 2014 2013 © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 25 Monthly radio listenership via the radio set in 2015 remained similar to that in 2014 • Around half of consumers (48.1%) listened to the radio via the radio set at least once every month, similar to 48.3% in 2014. • Listenership to the radio via other platforms remained low.

Chart 18: Frequency of listening to Mediacorp radio (%)

0.9 Radio set 47.3 4.6 11.6 35.7

1.0 2.2 MeRadio app 92.4 1.9 2.7

0.6 1.4 Toggle 91.5 4.5 2.1

0.9 1.3 MeRadio website 94.2 1.9 1.8

Not at all Rarely Over the last month Over the last week Yesterday © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 26 Pay TV take-up also remained relatively consistent, while dual subscription continued to fall

Chart 19: Pay TV subscription (%)

33.5 StarHub TV 35.9 34.9

31.0 Singtel TV 26.9 68.2% 19.1 of consumers

Subscribed to both Singtel and 3.7 subscribed to a 6.2 StarHub TV 9.0 Pay TV service

0.7 E.g. M1’s MiBox, Others 0.3 Toggle, Netflix, etc.

27.3 Do not subscribe to any 28.3 36.5

3.4 Used to subscribe but no longer 2.1

2015 2014 2013 © Media Development Authority Singapore Media Consumer Experience Study 2015 / 27 The lack of time was the top reason for not subscribing to Pay TV

Chart 20: Reasons for not subscribing to Pay TV (%)

46.8 No time to watch Pay TV 49.8 55.7

Mediacorp Free-to-Air TV is 30.7 51.7 enough 45.1

29.5 Pay TV is expensive 19.1 21.5

14.5 Not interested in Pay TV content

11.3 Content available online 8.3 5.4

10.1 Pay TV not value for money

2015 2014 2013

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