Of the 100 participants that we surveyed 43 were between the ages of 18 to 25. This was our densest age group that made up almost half of our participants. 14 people were 26 to 35, 21 people were 36 to 50, 19 people were 51 to 64, and only 3 people were 65 and older. With our method being in-person surveys, and with our team made of students, we found that most of the people we surveyed were also students. This explains the high number of participants who were in the 18-25 age categories.
All the age categories showed a strong preference to using their satellite/cable network provider as their main method of viewing movies. The age category of 51 to 64 showed a strong preference to using their household cable/satellite provider as their main method of viewing movies. The 18 to 25 category which was our largest group surveyed, preferred using “other” and Netflix as their main methods. The large amount of “other” methods of viewing is probably linked to streaming or downloading movies off of an external source. With the pirating of movies becoming increasingly common it is no surprise that there was such a large amount of people who chose this option.
It is noted that the 3 younger age categories displayed more use of Netflix as their preferred method of viewing movies. Participants who were 50 years old or older seemed to favor their household cable or satellite provider as a main source of viewing movies. Because Netflix requires particular technologies and internet functions to run successfully, this could be seen as a barrier for the older generations for subscribing. Netflix is a new method of providing entertainment, and therefore older customers may not be as open to change or perhaps do not know enough about it. However almost all participants had at least heard of Netflix, however some may have been lacking in sufficient information concerning how the system actually works.
Gender
Out of the 100 people surveyed, 61 people were female and 39 were male. For the most part the preferences between men and women were relatively the same, however did differ in certain areas. It seemed that women were more inclined to use Netflix than men. Women also showed a significant increased interest in going to the movie theatre; whereas men were more inclined to purchase movies to own. Both genders selected household cable/satellite provider as their most preferred method of viewing movies.
Income Of the 100 people that we surveyed there was an even spread of annual household incomes. The most common income bracket was the $20,000 to $50,000 per year bracket, which had 28 people. We found that most people who were in the middle to lower incomes were more likely to use Netflix as their main methods of viewing movies. People in the middle to higher income brackets were more inclined to use their household cable/satellite provider to watch movies. Price may play a significant role in these results and show how the price of Netflix can affect which customers they attract.
Most people who said that they used their household cable/satellite provider were in the middle to higher income brackets. The people who said that they used Netflix most often to view their movies were in the middle to lower income brackets ($50,000 per year and under). Netflix is $7.99 monthly, for a subscription which is considered low for the amount of value that comes with a subscription. This could explain why more people with middle to lower incomes use Netflix more often.
Results 1. Motivation to Subscribe to Netflix chart reference In our survey we included a question of what a person’s motivation to subscribe to Netflix would be. We included a variety of answers in the question to accommodate all possible participants. After receiving our answers for this question, the majority of our respondents choose ‘New Releases’ (as their motivation to subscribe to Netflix) having 53 out of 100 respondents select this as their answer. This is a major percentage of people selecting this answer, meaning this is crucial information for Netflix in furthering their market share. This is a clear sign to Netflix that this issue of not having new releases in their programming, needs to be addressed to increase their market. On the positive side of this issue, Netflix has managed to sign and keep a large customer base, knowing that they do not carry new releases in their programming.
The second highest answer scored for this question was the option ‘I already have Netflix’ with a score of 20 out of 100 respondents selecting it. This is also positive information for Netflix, because according to this survey they really only have one change to make to create an even larger customer base, to add new releases to Netflix program. The other options for this section were not really very significant compared to the two mentioned before. Theses options being ‘Better Selection’ having 13 out of 100 respondents choose this, and ‘Different Bundles and Packages’ having 11 out of 100 respondents choose this as their answer. While both these answers do help in figuring out what else people want out of Netflix, these answers have a very low significance due to how little number of times they were selected as a respondents answer.
The information discovered about people’s motivation to subscribe to Netflix is very important. As it is the basis for our objectives that we needed to develop more information on this topic. We ran a cross tabulation between ‘Motivations to Subscribe to Netflix’ and ‘The Method You Use Most to View Your Movies’. This cross tabulation will show Netflix the best way to decide the method they should use to enhance their programming. Now due to Netflix knowing what motivations people would like to subscribe (learning this through our research), the next thing they need to know is how people view these reasons, mainly addressing the issue of new releases because of its response popularity in our research. The most popular response to this cross tabulation was ‘New Releases’ as the motivation to subscribe, and ‘Household Cable or Satellite Provider’ as ‘The Method Most Used to View Movies’.
These results could have happened for a couple reasons. The two main reasons being cost and convenience. People who do not own Netflix are having fewer and fewer options to view movies from the comfort of home due to video stores going out of business. This leaves only a couple options in viewing movies. Going to the theatre is a big option, which has become very expensive, and is difficult to take a whole family for a reasonable price. Another reason could be that people just want to stay in the comfort of their home to watch movies. Watching movies through the household cable or satellite provider just becomes the easiest and most convenient for people to view their movies.
Another interesting piece of data we found in our research for ‘The Method You Use Most to View Your Movies’ is how popular the ‘Other’ option was. We originally had put this option in as an answer, as a way for people who download or pirate movies to contribute to our research without having to admit it. Looking at our research there is a large number of people who use this method to view their new releases and movies. This is good information for Netflix to know, even though Netflix cannot beat the price of this method, being free, they will know how they are losing opportunities to sign new clients, which then can be fixed to obtain more clients.
2. Methods in which people view their movies versus how many times they watch movies chart reference Chart (?) represents a cross tabulation between the methods in which people view their movies compared to how many times they watch movies per month. This was our most significant cross tabulation we performed as the association between these two variables had a p-value of 0.009 representing a high level of significance. Out of the 6 methods in which people watch movies; household cable or satellite provider, subscription to an internet based Movie Company, renting from movie store, going to the theatre, purchasing from the store, or other, we found that 34.6% of participants watch movies the most through their cable or satellite provider.
According to our research, out of this 34.6% the period in which people watch movies the most was 1-2 times and 3-5 times per month, which corresponds well with the most frequent answers for the question of how often people watch movies; the response that people gave most for that question was 3-5 times per month (33.6%), and 1-2 times per month (25.5%). This data taken from our survey allows for more insight for Netflix of what market to target most in Canada. This category also held the most participants answers of watching movies over ten times a month or more which illustrates that the cable and satellite movie market should be targeted first by Netflix as it migrates north to Canada.
For the methods of “renting from the movie store” and “purchasing movies” ranked the lowest for people viewing movies 1-5 times per month. This was the period where people viewed movies the most according to our survey, and the fact that our lowest ratings were found with these two methods tells us that the methods of purchasing and renting movies is becoming obsolete. This holds true as our statistics from the “other” category, as well as the “subscriptions to internet based movie companies” category shows a growing number of people who view movies three times or more. This points out that the expansion of Netflix into Canada would be a successful venture as more people appear to be drawn away from renting movies from video stores, to the convenience of renting on-line through cable, satellite, torrents/downloads (other), and companies such as Netflix.
