With the influx of streaming services in the market, consumers have been bombarded with content options over the last couple of years, and that’s only going to increase as more streaming services continue to launch. For TiVo, while it’s important to know what consumers are watching, it’s also important to analyze how they’re watching. Their new 2019 Video Trends Report, titled “A Mountain of Options,” looks into consumers’ watching habits as they continue to be flooded with content.
When it comes to streaming devices, smart TVs are still the most popular option, according to the TiVo report. About 30.7 percent of respondents use smart TVs, while 20.7 percent of respondents said they use a Roku streaming player and 18.9 percent use an Amazon Fire TV Stick. Gaming consoles such as Xbox and PlayStation came in close at 18.8 percent while Google Chromecast and Apple TV had 9.9 percent and 8.5 percent of users, respectively.
TiVo’s study also found that ad-supported services are gaining popularity as the years go by. YouTube is the number one, most popular source of free streaming content with 73.1 percent of users opting for the service. Facebook comes in second at 62.3 percent, while Crackle, Tubi, Vevo and Twitch also gained viewers and are on the climb.
In addition, the study found that password sharing is playing a part in cord-cutting. Of the consumers planning to cut the cord, 13.3 percent said it was due to sharing an account with family or friends — a 10.4 percent increase over 2018. Simultaneously, there was a drop in people citing price as the cause — 69.6 percent of people said pay-TV was too expensive, compared to last year’s 80.2 percent.
TiVo also discovered that when it comes to content discovery, consumers’ search methods vary. Most people admitted they find new movies and TV shows through subscription-based services such as Netflix (34.7 percent) and Amazon Prime (25.2 percent). However, when it came to a TV series that consumers watch regularly, traditional TV took the lead with 35 percent of respondents reporting that they find new episodes of their regularly watched series via cable or satellite TV.