As more people stayed at home during 2020 due to the pandemic, they were streaming a lot more videos for reasons beyond just entertainment, according to a recent survey conducted by Kanopy, a movie streaming company.
This trend “is expected to continue over the next three years, prompting many public libraries to transition their budgets from DVDs to streaming and prepare for changes and challenges,” according to the Kanopy announcement highlighting the results of the survey.
This finding, along with others, were revealed in a recent survey conducted by Kanopy, a company committed to streaming high-quality films that inspire, educate and entertain to libraries around the globe.
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More than 730 librarians, primarily in the U.S., participated, and a full report is available here.
Key findings include the following:
- More than 47% of participants say streaming video budgets will increase in 2021 and over 71% expect an increase over the next three years. Comparatively, just over 9% of participants say their DVD budgets will increase in 2021 and approximately 15% expect an increase in the next three years.
- 54.5% of public libraries currently offer more than one streaming video service, and many indicated training patrons to use multiple platforms is a challenge.
- 58.2% say that in addition to entertainment, patrons use streaming videos for other purposes such as personal enrichment and class assignments.
- Pay-per-view and subscription were nearly tied as the most preferred models for streaming video acquisition, at 23.6% and 23.4% respectively.
- 49.6% of librarians believe it is their responsibility to support the curricula of K-12 schools with streaming films, and 32.0% say they are collaborating with schools or plan to in the near future. Comparatively, 31.0% say it is their responsibility to support local community colleges and 9.8% say they are collaborating with them or plan to in the near future.
- 88.4% say collection diversity in their video selection is “important” to “very important” yet just 33% say they are meeting patron needs for such content.
The increase in video streaming use is surely great news for AV integrators in 2021 and beyond and the added need for more training highlights the importance of service contracts.
Expect to see more of these opportunities across most vertical markets in the new year and the next one and probably the one after that. If you’re not already exploring these options, you probably should be.
