TV Everywhere Growth Is Stalling, Finds Adobe Benchmark Report
Adobe's Q3 2015 Digital Video Benchmark report is out, and contains interesting conclusions about TV Everywhere. While existing users are enthusiastic about TVE, new user adoption grew by only 8 percent year-over-year, the report says. Less than 1 in 7 households with pay TV subscriptions use TVE sites or apps.
TVE use has always been anemic, especially compared to subscription video-on-demand services. What's changed is Adobe's messaging. While previous reports have emphasized TVE year-over-year growth, this is the first time Adobe is acknowledging that the area isn't gaining traction.
There are a few reasons for that, explained Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst of the Adobe Digital Index. Adobe knows that authentication is still too much of a hurdle for some households, and is working to make the process simpler. But Adobe also sees that TVE offerings are still spotty, and it wants to be a thought leader in this area. It's trying to push the industry into making the necessary contracts and commitments so that pay TV customers won't be disappointed when they investigate their TVE offerings.
The report also sees problems in the Apple ecosystem. While the Apple TV is showing strong growth—it leads Roku in the set-top box market by a two-to-one margin—its growth comes at the expense of iPad or iPhone viewing. Apple isn't expanding its reach, it's just shifting viewers. That could be bad news for Apple, Gaffney pointed out, as the iPad is a higher margin device than the Apple TV, and iPads aren't much used for video anymore. Time will tell if Apple is able to build the Apple TV into a successful hub for home viewing or automation.
In viewing trends, Adobe sees that connected TV streaming is up with TVE users, as people prefer watching long-form content on the biggest screen in the house. Phone viewing is up for non-authenticated viewers, with the share of mobile viewing now over 30 percent for the first time. What's down is tablet viewing, with non-authenticated video starts on tablets down 7 percent year-over-year.
Adobe analyzed over 130 billion online video views and 3.6 billion TVE authentications in the U.S. and Canada to get its data. Download the full report for free (no registration required).
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