New Report Reveals Number of Consumers Opting for On-Demand Viewing Continues to Climb

A new report by Conviva — a streaming media intelligence company — found that the time consumers spend on streaming services continues to increase. In their State of Streaming report, Conviva found that time spent streaming video went up 53 percent year-over-year. Conviva reported that 63 percent of consumers are opting for on-demand viewing.

NFL viewers saw a 77 percent increase in streaming plays and a 50 percent increase in time spent streaming compared to the third quarter on 2018. The report found that most of the NFL’s streaming growth occurred on mobile devices, which grew 109 percent in plays year-over-year, and TV, which grew by 66 percent.

When it comes to smart TVs, Roku continued to dominate the category. Viewing hours were up 58 percent year-over-year compared to PCs, which were up 36 percent, and mobile, which was up 33 percent. While Roku maintained the top position by ending Q3 with a solid 44 percent of market share, its growth rate for viewing time (73 percent) was a bit lower than Amazon Fire TV (78 percent). Amazon Fire TV closed the third quarter with 20 percent of market share and Apple TV with 9 percent.

The report also found that streaming services are working to ensure consumers get the best quality on their videos. From Q3 2018 to Q3 2019, Conviva reported that video start failures are down 10 percent, video start times are 6 percent faster, while there is 33 percent less buffering and the picture quality (bitrate) is 3 percent better.

While these improvements work to give the best quality to the consumer, it seems the changes haven’t translated to advertisers. The report stated that 39.6 percent of all streaming ad attempts failed in the third quarter. Ads were also hampered by delays such as long start times and buffering. In some cases, it took up to 16.1 seconds for an ad to start, leaving viewers to endure up to 45.9 percent of ad buffering.

Though ads tend to be received with a lot of chagrin, Conviva found that tolerance for them was dependent on the program being watched. Approximately 9 to 20 percent of viewers dropped each time an ad ran, with 18 percent of viewers dropping after the first ad during sports programming. The fourth ad in a stream saw the biggest drop, with 20 percent of news viewers, 17 percent of drama/comedy viewers, and 16 percent of reality TV viewers leaving after it aired. Overall, Conviva reported, 54 percent of the audience stopped viewing after four ads.