RiverTV, VMedia Inc.’s pioneering new live and on demand streaming TV service, recently conducted its first national customer satisfaction survey – and found that cord cutters love to watch good old TV.
While RiverTV offers thousands of hours of on demand content, and all the time-shifting features Canadians have come to expect, over 60% of respondents said their #1 favourite thing about RiverTV was live television.
More important, almost 90% of the 1,400 subscribers that completed the online survey were cord cutters, happy to rediscover the lean-back experience and thousands of hours of new, original content every month that live TV uniquely offers, on RiverTV’s app-based streaming platform.
“These amazing results were not a surprise to us,” said Alexei Tchernobrivets, CEO of RiverTV. “Data has shown that cord cutters, when offered the opportunity to enjoy live TV with the affordability and accessibility of other streaming services, have a strong appetite for the great live TV experience RiverTV delivers.”
Customer satisfaction with RiverTV itself was off the charts. Over 80% rated RiverTV 4-and-5 out of 5, and 95% of respondents said they would recommend the service to their friends and families. When asked how RiverTV could be improved, only 45 respondents had comments, primarily related to channels they would like to see added.
The survey also showed that RiverTV is reaching its target market across Canada. Over 70% of households included females, nearly 60% were couples, and 50% were homes with kids. Half were in the key 18-44 age group.
Unlike TV services offered by telcos and cablecos, with wires, internet plans, pricey packages, set top boxes and installation hassles, RiverTV can be instantly accessed, in or out of your home, on popular devices like Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, iPads and iPhones, Roku players and TVs, and certified android devices like Sony TVs and NVidia Shield. RiverTV recently added a web version, www.rivertv.ca/tv, so that favourite shows can be viewed on all major browsers on laptops, PCs and mobile devices.
“You can start enjoying a 7-day free trial of RiverTV in seconds,” said George Burger, COO of RiverTV, ”just come to our website, sign up and start watching. Or you can download RiverTV from your favourite app store. Our survey shows that live television is still in great demand as long as consumers can access it the same way they do Netflix, YouTube and other streaming services.”
The RiverTV line-up offers a great mix of top-rated shows and movies on local Global TV stations, CHCH-TV, W Network, Showcase, Teletoon, YTV, Treehouse, HISTORY®, Adult Swim, Family, Slice, Smithsonian Channel Canada, Crime & Investigation and many more. Subscribers also enjoy unique new content on US streaming channels that are bundled together only on RiverTV – Cheddar, Drink TV, Journy, Law & Crime, Newsmax, Newsy, and REVOLT, with more channels coming soon.
Subscribers will soon also be able to add many ‘a la carte’ channels to the RiverTV package, including Nick+, Hollywood Suite and Superchannel.
In the US, streamed live TV platforms have become a popular alternative to conventional TV, with Sling, YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV now serving a market of nearly 10 million homes. These solutions are attractive to consumers who appreciate the many benefits of live TV and all the great original programming it offers, but want live TV to be more affordable, and easily accessible on the media platform of their choice. VMedia’s RiverTV now offers this unique alternative to Canadians.
“We have for years been urging channel providers and regulators to make live TV more accessible in this way to Canadians and let them watch live TV the same way they enjoy all popular streaming services,” said Mr. Burger. “Some channel providers, for competitive reasons, have chosen not to make their channels available to RiverTV. With the success of our launch, and the overwhelmingly positive response of our subscribers, we feel vindicated, and will redouble our efforts to make all channels available to Canadians in this way.”
