Online TV consumption across all devices grew at 246% year-over-year and 49% of US households have a TV connected to the internet, according to reports by Adobe and the Leichtman Research Group.
Adobe’s Q1 2014 Video Benchmark Report also found that game consoles and OTT devices saw the strongest market share growth with a 539% increase. For the first time iOS apps surpassed browsers as the most popular access point for TV Everywhere content achieving a 43% market share. Browsers fell behind with a 36% share compared to 47% a year ago.
“More than one fifth of all pay TV households in the US now watch TV online across screens,” said Jeremy Helfand, vice president, Primetime, Adobe. “With rapidly rising consumer expectations for TV across devices, the TV industry is moving through a rapid transformation and finding new ways to bring TV to whatever screen audiences want to watch.”
TV Everywhere content consumption grew 246% year-over-year, excluding data from the Sochi Olympics, a major TV Everywhere event in Q1. Eighty percent of children’s content was viewed on iOS apps while browsers drove the majority (50%) of news-focused videos.
In the US, 21% of pay TV households accessed TV Everywhere content across devices in Q1 compared to just 16% six months ago.
In the Leichtman Research Group report, 49% of all US households have at least one television set connected to the internet via a video game system, Blu-ray player, smart TV set, and/or standalone device (like Roku, Apple TV, or Google Chromecast), up from 38% in 2012, and 24% in 2010. Overall, 24% of adults watch video from the internet via a connected TV at least weekly, compared to 13% two years ago, and 5% four years ago.
Connected television use is heavily skewed towards Netflix subscribers, with 49% of Netflix subscribers watching video from the internet via a connected device weekly, compared to 8% weekly use among all non-Netflix subscribers. Among Netflix streaming video users, 78% say that they watch Netflix on a TV set, a similar level to the previous three years.
Other findings include:
- 80% of all Netflix subscribers also subscribe to a pay TV service compared to 85% in 2012, and 88% in 2010
- 48% of all non-subscribers to a pay TV service get Netflix compared to 29% in 2012, and 16% in 2010
- 15% of Netflix subscribers agree that their Netflix subscription is shared with others outside their household
- 47% of households get Netflix, Amazon Prime, and/or Hulu Plus
On a daily basis, 31% of adults watch video on non-TV devices (including home computers, mobile phones, iPads, tablets, and eReaders), and 58% weekly, up from 18% daily, and 46% weekly two years ago.
Including connected TV sets, 34% watch any over-the-top video daily, and 61% weekly.
“While this study is LRG’s eighth annual report on this topic, Emerging Video Services have truly emerged over the past two to three years,” said Bruce Leichtman (pictured), president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group. “This recent growth was spurred by Netflix’s decision in the third quarter of 2011 to focus on streaming video, coupled with the proliferation of connected TV devices, smartphones, and iPads and tablets.”
This story also appears on IBC’s Content Everywhere.
