Conviva – a measurement and engagement platform for streaming media – has revealed in a new report that global viewing time on connected TVs decreased for the first time in Q4 2021 from the previous year. The company gathers data by measuring nearly three trillion real-time transactions per day with a sensor embedded directly within streaming video apps. While global viewing time on connected TV and gaming consoles fell by 2% and 16% respectively, viewing on Smart TV’s rose by an enormous 37%. Additionally, viewing time on mobile phones increased by 17% and on tablet by 5%.
Despite the viewing times on connected TVs and gaming consoles falling, big screens continued to dominate viewing globally with more than a 50% share of viewing in every region except Asia. However even in Asia, big screen viewing share rose significantly from 14% in Q3 2021 to 27% in Q4 2021. The second lowest big screen viewership share is in Africa at 58%. Across the continent desktop and mobile had a similar share of viewing time at 19% and 18% respectively, while tablets took 4%.
The largest share of big screen viewership is in North America with 83%, and other devices split by just a few percentage points: mobile at 8%, desktop at 5%, and tablets at only 3%. Big screens were also the preferred screen for viewing in South America with 70% of the share, while mobile took 16%, desktop 12% and tablets with just 2%. Conviva said: “The shift toward bigger screens is a continuing, strong trend as streaming providers focus on delivering content meant for the biggest screens possible.”
Conviva also reports that streaming viewing times have continued to experience growth on a global level, with a rise in viewing time of 61% in South America, 54% in Oceania, 51% in Africa and 20% in Europe. Viewing times also grew by 5% in Asia and 1% in North America.
A survey of 7000 viewers across seven countries – including the U.S., UK, Germany, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden – conducted by Audience Project, shows that “in all countries but Finland, the commercially attractive audience of 15-55-year-olds now prefer streaming over linear TV.”
Only 44% of U.S. respondents said they imagined themselves continuing to watch linear TV in five years. Similarly only 47% of UK viewers said they would, as well 45% of viewers in Germany. Finland displayed the most loyalty towards linear TV, with 66% of respondents saying they intend to continue watching linear TV in five years.
The survey results also shows that 30% of U.S. and 25% of UK viewers said they watch less linear TV and stream/download more compared to the previous year. 22% of viewers in Germany said the same, while only 14% of viewers in Denmark and 9% in Finland believed they streamed more at the expense of linear. In the United States, 30% of viewers now purely stream/download shows and movies, as well as 26% of UK viewers and 22% of viewers in Germany.
Audience Project commented: “Though we see differences in the development of linear TV viewing across countries, the overall trend is that TV consumption is moving from linear TV to streaming, showing that TV advertising outside linear TV holds great potential for advertisers.”
With regards to ad frequency, Audience Project found that 90% of U.S. viewers felt they had see the same ads too many times. This was also the case for 90% of Denmark viewers, 87% of UK viewers, and 93% and 92% of viewers in Norway and Sweden respectively.
Aside from in the U.S. (with 46%) the majority of viewers felt that linear TV ads they were exposed to were irrelevant to them. 73% of German viewers, 68% of Danish viewers and 63% of Finnish viewers agreed that linear TV ads were irrelevant to them, with the percentage of UK viewers who also agreed even rising to 70% in 2021, up from 56% in the previous year.
