Streaming TV viewership grows 72% year-over-year

Even though there are still some issues regarding quality of experience, the streaming market is booming says Conviva’s latest edition of its State of the Streaming TV Industry report.

In its study Conviva analysed a trillion real-time transactions per day via three billion applications streaming on devices in 180 countries. Fundamentally the data confirmed accelerating streaming industry growth and uncovered what the company called ‘surprises’ in device market share, ad delivery, and social media consumption.

Year-on-year streaming TV viewership grew 72% and the rate of consumption increased by 49%. In addition to fresh updates on index data related to consumption patterns, device market share and customer experience issues. Virtual MVPDs such as DirecTV Now, Hulu, PlayStation Vue, and Sling saw viewership grow 108% year-over-year as compared with 60% growth for other services in the US.

Indicating its growing part in the battle of TV screens, Conviva found that Amazon Fire TV captured a 18.6% share, up from 11.4% share in Q1 2018, while Roku maintained its long-standing lead of 42.4% share. In terms of genre, sports continued to be hot, the US College Football National Championship had the highest peak concurrent viewership, 37.6% higher than the Q1‘18 peak event. Super Bowl LIII and March Madness streaming viewership grew significantly, up 157% and 67% respectively.

However, striking a note of caution, the report also highlighted what Conviva called a ‘massive’ failure rate of streaming TV ads signals both huge risk and opportunity. The report showed that up to 47% of ads failed, when even a 1% failure rate carries a high cost and impact on engagement. The report also noted the relationship between ad delays and loss of viewers.

“There’s no surprise that the streaming TV market is expanding significantly,” said Conviva CEO Bill Demas commenting on the report. “Maintaining a high-quality viewer experience tightly across content and advertising is increasingly important as streaming providers look to increase viewer engagement and monetisation. The battle for streaming market share is a fast-growing pie and services must deliver an experience comparable to linear TV to fulfil viewer expectations.”