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A new study conducted by ConsumerLab of the company Ericsson revealed preferences of Greek consumers for the so-called 'streaming' (watching video content online) over traditional TV. In particular, 86% of Greeks prefer streaming media, compared with 77% preferring the traditional means of information.

According to the results of the study, watching streaming content is close to traditional TV worldwide, lagging only two percentage points behind in terms of weekly viewing. Moreover, almost every fifth person (19%) is ready to pay for the opportunity to have access to their favourite content from any device, which means that within just two years the number of these users has increased by 25%.

The report by Ericsson ConsumerLab TV & Media 2014 is based on 23,000 interviews conducted online with broadband users in 23 countries - Brazil, France, Germany, Greece, United Arab Emirates, UK, USA, Indonesia, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Canada, China, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey and Chile. Almost all respondents use the Internet daily. The survey results represent the views of over 620 million people.

The study is carried out for the fifth consecutive year and for the first time this year it includes data from Greece.

The study also revealed increased time for watching of video content through other devices (computers, laptops, smart phones and tablets). Moreover, it emerges that the traditional channels and cable TV are considered by many to be "repositories of content", from where they can draw selected programmes to watch them later using digital video recorders (DVR). The increasing use of DVR helps to continue the trend of "marathon watching" of the series (binge), beginning with collections of TV series and movies on DVD which is completely the opposite to the traditional weekly anticipation of the new episode.

For the same reason, many viewers have transferred to subscription services video-on-demand (S-VOD), such as Netflix and Hulu, and 48% say they prefer all episodes of series such as «Breaking Bad» and «House of Cards" to be broadcasted simultaneously so that they are able to watch the episode they want.

Nicholas Hayman Renblum, Senior Advisor at Ericsson ConsumerLab, says: "Our research shows that 56% of the people who subscribed for the service video-on-demand prefer all episodes of a series to be broadcasted simultaneously so that they are able to watch them when they want, against 45% of those who are not subscribers to the S-VOD. This shows how these services affect the habits and requirements when watching content."

"There are different categories in the marathon watching of series. Some viewers find a series in the middle of the season and watch many series in a row to get to the developments in the new episodes. Others prefer to watch the entire season when they want, at their own pace, and usually wait for the series to end and then watch it when all the episodes are already available".

While 41% of the consumers have expressed a desire to be able to watch their favourite programmes anywhere, there are still two major constraints: the cost of mobile data and the cost of the content itself.

Another interesting conclusion of the study is that many consumers are not willing to compromise on picture quality, with 43% saying that Ultra High Definition is extremely important.