Streaming in Brazil Customer Challenges and Pains Analysis¶
Challenges and Pains faced by Customers¶
Based on the analysis of the provided reports, the main challenges and pains faced by streaming customers in Brazil can be detailed as follows:
- Connectivity Issues: Uneven broadband quality, particularly in regions outside major urban centers, and mobile data caps significantly impact the user experience. This leads to buffering complaints and limits the ability to stream in higher definitions like HD and 4K. [Appendix]
- Subscription Fatigue and Cost Sensitivity: With a growing number of streaming services available, customers face increasing costs if they wish to access content across multiple platforms. This leads to "subscription fatigue" and makes price a significant factor in subscription decisions. Many customers are cost-conscious and may cancel subscriptions or share login credentials to mitigate these costs. [Appendix]
- Content Discovery and Access: While a vast amount of content is available, customers may face challenges in discovering relevant content across numerous platforms. Licensing complexities and windowing (delays in content availability) can also limit timely access to desired films or series.
- Piracy: The widespread availability of illegal streaming options, such as IPTV boxes and torrent sites, presents a pain point for legitimate paying customers as it undermines the value of their subscriptions and the content they access legally. [Appendix]
- User Experience Frustrations: Customers experience frustrations with technical issues like re-buffering (encountered by 58% of Latin American viewers), videos taking too long to start (52%), and ads stalling (40%). These issues directly impact the enjoyment and perceived value of the service.
- Limited Unified Metrics and Opaque Royalty Splits (Indirect Pain): Although this is a more B2B challenge within the value chain, the lack of unified cross-platform metrics and opaque royalty splits can indirectly impact customers by potentially affecting the investment in and availability of certain types of content.
- Regulatory Uncertainty (Indirect Pain): Pending regulations regarding taxation and content quotas, while aimed at supporting the local industry, create uncertainty that could potentially influence future pricing and content availability for consumers. [Appendix]
Here is a prioritized table of the challenges and pains based on their direct impact and frequency mentioned in the reports:
| Priority | Challenge/Pain | Description | Impact on Customer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Connectivity Issues | Uneven internet quality and data limitations causing buffering and poor streaming quality. [Appendix], | Frustration, inability to watch content smoothly, limited access to high quality. |
| 2 | Subscription Fatigue & High Cost | Too many services leading to high cumulative costs and difficulty choosing; price sensitivity. [Appendix] | Financial strain, difficult choices, resorting to account sharing or piracy. |
| 3 | User Experience Frustrations | Technical glitches like buffering, slow start times, and ad issues. | Annoyance, abandonment of viewing sessions, negative perception of the service. |
| 4 | Piracy | Availability of illegal content alternatives. [Appendix] | Undermines value of legitimate services, potential security risks. |
| 5 | Content Discovery and Access | Difficulty finding desired content across platforms; delays in content availability. | Frustration, missed content, perceived lack of value in subscriptions. |
| 6 | Regulatory Uncertainty (Indirect) | Unclear future regulations potentially impacting pricing and content. [Appendix] | Potential price increases or changes in content availability in the future. |
| 7 | Limited Unified Metrics (Indirect) | Lack of standardized measurement affecting industry investment and content creation. | Potential impact on the quality and variety of content produced. |
Correlation with Value Chain¶
The identified customer challenges and pains are closely correlated with various steps of the streaming value chain in Brazil:
- Connectivity Issues: This pain point is directly linked to the Distribution & Delivery step of the value chain. The quality and reach of the internet infrastructure provided by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and the efficiency of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) in the "last mile" delivery significantly impact the customer's streaming experience. [Appendix] Uneven infrastructure quality in interior regions is a specific bottleneck in this step. [Appendix]
- Subscription Fatigue and Cost Sensitivity: This challenge primarily relates to the Monetization & Marketing step. The proliferation of SVOD services and their pricing strategies directly contribute to the cumulative cost for consumers. [Appendix] The intense competition in this step drives platforms to use various monetization models (SVOD, AVOD, bundling), which, while offering choice, can also lead to complexity and perceived high costs for the customer. [Appendix]
- User Experience Frustrations (Buffering, Slow Start, Ads): These technical pains are mainly tied to the Platform Development & Technology Infrastructure and Distribution & Delivery steps. Issues with encoding, transcoding, CDN performance, and the efficiency of the streaming application itself contribute to buffering and slow start times. [Appendix] Ad stalling specifically relates to the technology and implementation within the Monetization & Marketing step for AVOD services.
- Piracy: This challenge impacts the entire value chain, but is most directly felt in Content Aggregation & Rights Management and Monetization & Marketing. Piracy undermines the value of content licenses and acquisition by offering unauthorized free access, leading to revenue leakage for platforms and rights holders. [Appendix]
- Content Discovery and Access: This correlates with the Content Aggregation & Rights Management and Platform Development & Technology Infrastructure steps. The effectiveness of content curation, metadata management, and the platform's search and recommendation algorithms (part of Platform Development) influence how easily customers can find content. [Appendix] Licensing windows and exclusivity deals (Content Aggregation) directly affect content availability. [Appendix]
- Limited Unified Metrics and Opaque Royalty Splits: This B2B challenge primarily exists within the Content Aggregation & Rights Management and impacts the commercial relationships between platforms, content creators, and rights holders. [Appendix] While not a direct customer pain, it can indirectly affect the ecosystem and potentially the quality and variety of content available in the long run.
- Regulatory Uncertainty: This influences all steps of the value chain by creating an unpredictable operating environment for the players involved. [Appendix] Discussions around taxation (impacting Monetization) and content quotas (impacting Content Production and Aggregation) can ultimately affect the services offered and their cost to the customer. [Appendix]
In summary, customer challenges and pains in the Brazilian streaming market are not isolated issues but are deeply intertwined with the functioning and bottlenecks present across the content production, aggregation, technology, distribution, monetization, and regulatory steps of the value chain. Addressing these customer-centric issues requires coordinated efforts and improvements throughout the entire ecosystem.
References¶
- Latin America Video Streaming Behavior Survey - Dataxis
- Tackling sports piracy in an IP world | Synamedia
- Brazil's economy is stable, but consumers are feeling down - McKinsey & Company
- BytePlus MediaLive Revolutionizes Digital Content
- Brazil music market Ready for prime time - MIDiA Research
- Euromonitor International reveals top global consumer trends for 2025
- DIGITAL PLATFORMS: - GOV.BR
- brazil streaming market | Music Industry Blog
- Brazil Video Streaming Market Size, Share and Report 2025-33 - IMARC Group
- Customers increasingly prefer streaming movies and shows on TV: Study - About Amazon
- A case about Nubank: the story of an innovative fintech in Brazil - POLITesi
- (PDF) An analysis of industrial networks for remanufacturing in Brazil - ResearchGate
- Innovation in the eCommerce B2c value-chain: analysis of latest trends and innovative start-ups fundings - POLITesi - Politecnico di Milano
- Global value chains and world trade - CEPAL
- Customer first. Customer obsessed. - KPMG International