Analysis company Conviva has reported that the amount of time spent streaming content has risen globally. In the United States, time spent streaming was up 61 percent between Q4 2018 and Q4 2019. It’s a significant amount, indicating the strength of the cord-cutting movement.
Europe topped the data, with the highest time spent streaming increasing by 65 percent in the same period. Overall, the global average increased by 58 percent.
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Why the increase?
The report highlighted potential reasons, beyond people just becoming savvier with technology and their entertainment expenditure. Their opinion is that new streaming platforms, including Disney+ and Apple TV+, are at the heart of this growth. Considering the subscriber numbers of both platforms, it is possible.
- Disney+ has an estimated 24 million U.S. subscribers.
- Apple TV+ is reported to have 33.6 million U.S. subscribers.
It will be interesting to see what happens in 2020, as NBC Peacock and HBO Max launch in Q2. These are destined to be major streaming services and have both spent big, attaining exclusives like Friends and The Office.
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More data from the report
- Time spent streaming increased by 63 percent in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
- In Asia, time spent streaming increased by only 10 percent.
- In the United States, streaming time via mobile and tablets increased by 67 percent.
- Most interestingly for cord-cutters, streaming on TV increased by 53 percent during the year. This means cord-cutting is essentially taking control of the living room.
- Time spent watching live TV via streaming services has increased by 34 percent. Thus, on-demand still dominates with 66 percent of viewing time.
Who are Conviva?
Conviva are a research firm based in Foster City, California. They analyze streaming media, social media, and advertising. Their real-time platform tracks a trillion events daily across 3 billion applications, in 180 countries.
Their outlook on streaming is positive, with their CEO Bill Demas quoting in the report.
“We’ve barely begun to scratch the surface of streaming’s impact not only on consumer behavior, but also on the multi-billion dollar advertising and entertainment industries.”
Conviva CEO Bill Demas
Considering the growth, and the major streaming services coming this year, 2020 is going to be a big year for cord-cutting. However, from what the data shows, the trend toward it is already overwhelming.
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