Conviva’s Q1‘19 edition of its State of the Streaming TV Industry report reveils that, year-over-year online viewership grew 72% and the rate of consumption growth increased by 49%.
Some of the most revealing and surprising insights from Conviva’s analysis of a trillion real-time transactions per day via 3 billion applications streaming on devices in 180 countries include:
– Content aggregator growth continues. Virtual MVPDs such as DirecTV Now, Hulu, PlayStation Vue, and Sling saw viewership grow 108% year-over-year as compared to 60% growth for other services in the United States.
– Massive failure rate of streaming TV ads signals both huge risk and opportunity. Up to 47% of ads are failing, when even a 1% failure rate carries a high cost and impact on engagement. The report also details the relationship between ad delays and loss of viewers.
– The battle for the TV screen is not over. Amazon Fire TV captured 18.6% share, up significantly from 11.4% share in Q1 2018, while Roku maintained its long-standing lead of 42.4% share. The Q1‘19 Conviva report also details connected TV vs. mobile vs. PC consumption patterns.
– Live sports streaming remains hot. The College Football National Championship had the highest peak concurrent viewership, 37.6% higher than the Q1‘18 peak event. Super Bowl LIII and March Madness streaming viewership grew significantly, up 157% and 67% respectively.
– Social media is a big opportunity for content distribution and monetization. New Conviva findings provide initial insights on which content performs best by platform, viewership dynamics on peak events such as the Oscars, sports championships, and the Mueller Report, and the effectiveness of short-form and full-length content distribution.
– Quality metrics are significantly improving along with massive growth. Buffering improved dramatically year-over-year, with fewer video start failures and picture quality increasing significantly. The Q1‘19 report provides the latest statistics on dozens of quality measurements, but also signals to the industry that we still have far to go, amidst heightened viewer expectations.
“There’s no surprise that the streaming TV market is expanding significantly,” said Bill Demas, CEO of Conviva.
“Maintaining a high-quality viewer experience tightly across content and advertising is increasingly important as streaming providers look to increase viewer engagement and monetization. The battle for streaming market share is a fast-growing pie and services must deliver an experience comparable to linear TV to fulfill viewer expectations.”