Yesterday was pretty much TV data dork Christmas, with Tivo’s Digitalsmith research firm releasing its latest white paper about the state of the stuff we spend so many hours of our lives with our eyes passively sucking in. Polling 3,000-some participants, the “Q2 2016 Video Trends Report” is a wide-ranging look at American viewing and spending habits, including a slight uptick in people cutting the cable cord (and grabbing their basic network channels via digital antenna), and a reiteration of the idea that almost nobody digitally rents.
The most interesting takeaway from the paper—which you can download for yourself right here—is a new question added to this year’s report: How much are users willing to shell out for their Netflix fix? The question isn’t an academic one; the price to access shows like Daredevil and Orange Is The New Black—not to mention the rest of the service’s always rotating library—has been steadily rising over years, with the latest jump moving the price from $9 a month to $10.
That’s apparently fine, though: although 30 percent of respondents said they wouldn’t pay a single penny more for their Netflix, most (40 percent) suggested they could go as high as $15. Anything higher though, and they’re out, driven—presumably—into the arms of Amazon, or maybe to take up whittling or reading books. That’s not entirely surprising, given that “low cost” is the single most popular feature that Netflix offers users, followed by the ability to create custom profiles, and the option to transform an entire evening of your precious time on earth into a grainy blur through its time-devouring “auto play next episode” abomination of lazy convenience.