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CTV overtakes linear as Europeans’ preferred entertainment platform

In the UK, 72 per cent of ShowHeroes' respondents said they prefer CTV to linear, while in Germany the figure is 81 per cent, and even higher in Spain at 86 per cent

A new report from global video solutions company ShowHeroes Group has found that 80 per cent of European viewers said they prefer watching content via CTV over traditional linear services.

The company undertook its research using state-of-the-art Tobii eye tracking glasses, along with eSense electrodermal response sensors, to track the attentiveness of TV viewers, including on CTV (smart TVs and streaming devices) in a home environment.

The biometric results were combined with a quantitative survey of 2,100 respondents in seven key European markets.

Almost two-thirds (62 per cent) of users said they use CTV because of the flexibility that it provides, with “range of content” and “ease of use” ranking as other top reasons for cutting the cord with linear.

In the UK, 72 per cent of ShowHeroes’ respondents said they prefer CTV to linear, while in Germany the figure is 81 per cent, and even higher in Spain at 86 per cent.

German CTV viewers watch the highest amount of CTV per day – with 93 per cent watching more than two hours per day.

With the launch of more and more SVoD services across Europe, subscription fatigue is building. Most users only had two subscriptions. Some 57 per cent said they would prefer to watch ad supported free content than to increase their monthly SVoD services, while 42 per cent of users stated that their key reason for this was because they were looking for value for money.

ShowHeroes also found that CTV had:

  • An 82 per cent attention rate for CTV, versus 69 per cent for linear TV and 42 per cent for social video.
  • Users showed an average attention length of 12.2 seconds for CTV advertising content before looking away; nearly 3 seconds longer than linear TV, and 5x longer than YouTube
  • During CTV ad breaks, viewers were found to be in the “engagement zone” 71 per cent of the time, according to viewers’ electrodermal responses: 11 per cent higher than social video ads

“With CTV content, viewers have high engagement and are in the ideal mental state for remembering messages” said Ilhan Zengin, CEO at ShowHeroes Group. “Users are in the overload stage considerably less on CTV, with the format providing a more relaxed, lean-back environment in which to reach viewers.”

The full report is available for download here.