Research | 4:09 February 23, 2010 | Pete Dodd | Print this story

Consumers not unwilling to pay for online content: report

The vast majority (85%) of 27,000 consumers across 52 countries surveyed by researcher Nielsen would prefer free online content to remain free, but there are indications that consumers are willing to consider paying for particular categories, especially if they have done so before.

Online content for which consumers are most likely to pay, or have already paid, are those they normally pay for offline, such as theatrical movies, music, games and DVDs of current television shows all professionally produced at comparatively high cost, Nielsen said.

The research showed consumers are least likely to pay for cheap home grown content such as podcasts, consumer-generated videos and blogs.

In between, there is an array of news formats – newspapers, magazines, internet-only news sources and radio news and talk shows – created by professionals, relatively expensive to produce and, in the case of newspapers and magazines, commonly sold offline, but also readily available elsewhere for free.

“Whatever their preferences, consumers worldwide generally agree online content will have to meet certain criteria before they shell out money to access it,” Nielsen said. “Almost 80% believe if they already subscribe to a newspaper, magazine, radio or television service they should be able to use its online content for free.”

At the same time, 71% of global consumers say free online content of any kind will have to be considerably better before they will pay for it, and 79% would no longer use a website that charges if they can find the same information at no cost.

Despite growing consensus that the media may only be able to generate appreciable online revenues by charging consumers for content, there is little agreement on just how to do that, Nielsen reported.

“Companies are experimenting with a range of payment models, from full service subscriptions to individual transactions, or ‘micropayments’,” the anaysts said, noting that the latter option was preferred by consumers.

Regardless of what systems they choose, media companies will almost certainly not abandon advertising; and consumers will doubtless still see ads along with paid content, Nielsen said.

“For the 47% of respondents who are willing to accept more advertising to subsidise free content, that may be tolerable,” the survey noted. “Yet it will probably not sit well with the 64% who believe that if they must pay for content online, there should be no ads.”