Streaming Hours, On-Demand Viewing, CTV, and Expectations All Up
Streaming is surging, says Conviva. The video optimization specialist released its State of the Streaming TV Industry annual report today, and it sees big increases—although some areas are growing faster than others.
Compared to 2017, global streaming plays were up by 74% and streaming viewing hours were up 89%. It's all part of the multi-year trend away from traditional pay TV and toward online delivery, the report says. "Streaming has gone from novelty to necessity," it notes.
Both on-demand and live streaming saw big increases, but on-demand grew faster with a 111% year-over-year increase in viewing hours. In 2017, on-demand viewing counted for 53% of all streaming viewing time; in 2018, that increased to 59%.
People are increasingly watching streamed video on connected TVs, which saw a 121% increase in viewing hours year-over-year. In 2017, CTV viewing counted for 47% of all streaming hours; in 2018, that rose to 56%.
With dramatic increases in streaming time comes an equally dramatic rise in viewer expectations. Streaming quality is improving with buffering, for example, 23% better year-over-year, saving viewers 4 seconds of waiting per hour-long show. But as quality gets better, viewers get more impatient. Viewers abandoned videos at a 7% higher rate than in 2017. This suggests viewers are increasingly impatient with delays.
Conviva's data comes from proprietary technology that measures 1 trillion data events each day from 3 billion streaming applications. For more data, download Conviva's State of the Streaming TV Industry report for 2018 for free (registration required).
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