By John Bugailiskis
LAS VEGAS – Nearly 70% of US broadband households own at least one streaming video product that is connected to the Internet, more than 80% of broadband households have at least one streaming service and 49% subscribe to four or more services. This according to a new Parks Associates’ whitepaper, Reaching Today’s Video Audiences: Platform Diversity and ROI, released during CES 2022.
Amazon at CES this week announced it has now sold 150 million Fire TV streaming devices worldwide. By comparison, Roku reported 56.4 million active streaming accounts across its family of devices at the end of the third quarter of 2021.
“The streaming video market has experienced increased service usage, and consumers are watching streamed video content on multiple devices in the home and increasingly from multiple services,” said Paul Erickson, director, research, Parks Associates in a press release.
“The role of streaming video across multiple platforms is more important than ever before in the entertainment mix for consumers.”
Fifty-six per cent of US broadband households now own a smart TV. More than half of those households are now using the smart TV as the device they access most frequently to watch streaming video. The increase in connected TV devices and viewership in turn has driven growth in the average number of hours per week of video consumed.
“The video developer community is seeing similar growth in their applications targeting multiple platforms, as OTT services support 10% more devices than they did last year,” said James Varndell, senior product manager for Bitmovin Player.
“Given how many different platforms providers must support to reach their diverse global audience, developers need to consider all of the factors to launch on a new device, such as development costs, ongoing testing and support, error reduction, and more.”
Seventy-two per cent of broadband households are engaging in multiplatform streaming video viewing, and 40% are viewing on all platforms available to them.
“Consumer adoption of multiple streaming video services may slow, but their comfort with streaming content will persist—the connected home is now permanently a multiplatform environment,” adds Erickson.
Not surprisingly the report found that as social distancing and shelter-in-place orders went into effect across the US in early 2020, consumers increased their at-home entertainment consumption. The increase in connected TV devices and viewership in turn has driven growth in the average number of hours per week of video consumed.
“Weekly video consumption is now at 37.5 average hours per week, up an extra three hours per week since early 2020. Consumers who own and use smart TVs watch more hours of video per week than owners of any other devices, but streaming media player owners watch more content from SVOD and AVOD video services,” states the report.
The firm’s latest survey also found that US broadband households have an average of 14.5 connected devices (see chart above), and this is likely to grow further. In the US:
- 38% of broadband households have a gaming console
- 36% of broadband households subscribe to or are trialing a video gaming service
- 31% of broadband households or 30+ million households use free ad-based OTT services
- 50% of cord-cutters cite the high cost of traditional pay-TV services as the reason to cancel the service
“Consumers are increasingly willing to spend for better entertainment experiences at home, and they now see greater tangible value in the content, services, and devices that maximize the quality of their home audio and visual experiences,” said Erickson.
