A new Parks Associates survey notes that 76 percent of U.S. broadband households subscribe to an OTT service. That’s a hike of about 6 million households since early 2019.
The survey, from March 8 to April 3, correlates with the acceleration of shelter-in-place edicts. As more people watch more TV, the popularity of streaming networks soars.
The researcher, which surveyed 10,000 U.S. broadband households, found pay streamers, such as Hulu with Live TV, YouTube and Sling TV, enjoying upticks of 12 percent. Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu and Netflix have also seen rises in usage.
Such findings echo a March 19-21 “Morning Consult/The Hollywood Reporter” survey, which found 53 percent of adults said they would prefer to watch a newly released film at home, via a streaming service.
The trend is revising revenue models for the industry.
Steve Nason, research director at Parks Associates, stated: “Consumers are experimenting with watching video on different services and different devices. We anticipate a number of changes to occur, including higher consumption combined with reduced spending per month on services, which could boost ad-based services, as well as shifts in what content consumers are watching.”
Reelgood, an aggregator for streaming sources, also tracks shifts in content consumption. New data tracking its 4.8 million OTT users from March 16 to April 26 noted a significant rise in available content for kids.
Catharine Burhenne, head of marketing, Reelgood, believes the entertainment businesses that thrive now and post-COVID are those that “cater their offerings to accommodate the huge appetite for streaming kids content.” She cited Tubi Kids as an example.