While service providers spend significant capex on enabling multiscreen video capabilities, consumers of streaming video still prefer to watch their programs on TV sets, suggests a newly released study. “The Secret Life of Streamers, Part II” is a collaboration between OTT video consumption measurement and analytics platform supplier Conviva and market research firm nScreenMedia.
The study leverages three years of data collected via Conviva’s Video AI Platform. Colin Dixon, founder and principal analyst at nScreenMedia, analyzed the data to create the report. The report includes data collected in 2015 and 2016 for Part 1 of the study, released in 2016, as well as new data from April 2016 to April 2017 as well as October 2016 and October 2017.
"Conviva has a unique census-level data set capturing detailed viewing habits of billions of streaming video applications and devices across the globe," Dixon said. "Our most recent independent analysis shows connected TV dominating all devices 24/7, with plays increasing 75%, highlighting the rise of this platform at the expense of other screens. The transition from traditional television to streaming television has become more prominent, and viewers are binge-watching multiple shows via connected TV during primetime."
Salient conclusions from the study include:
- Connected TV streaming in the home has tripled since 2015 to replace the PC as the most popular viewing platform for binge-watching.
- The 77-minute average viewing session on connected TVs is twice that of personal computers and mobile devices.
- User preferences in the U.S. and the UK are similar. Viewers in both countries favor connected TV, with sets accounting for 46% of premium video plays in the U.S. and 43% in the UK.
- Viewers in the UK, U.S. and Norway prefer longer episodic content on their mobile devices, while Canadians prefer short videos on mobile.
The report is available here.