79% of consumers won’t pay for website content

A cautionary tale for publishers looking to build paywalls around online editorial content from Nielsen, whose latest survey of 27,000 consumers in 52 countries shows 79% will not pay, assuming that content is available elsewhere.

However, consumers will pay for movies, music and games, which top the rankings of things we will pay for online.

Blogs and consumer generated video ranked lowest of all and were generally expected to be free.

The research firm found that consumers expect content to meet certain criteria before they are willing to pay for with 78% saying they should get free online access if they already subscribe to a newspaper, magazine, radio or TV service.

Nielsen found that 47% of respondents are willing to accept more advertising to subsidise free content. In turn, 64% believe that if they must pay for content, there should be no ads.