Time spent watching streaming video increased 89 percent globally in 2018, with live events like the midterm election fueling the biggest viewing spikes in the U.S., according to new data from measurement and analytics company Conviva.
In addition to the year-over-year jump, streaming TV viewing hours were up 165 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to the same period a year prior, Conviva’s State of the Streaming TV Industry report shows.
Live news viewer traffic soared 217 percent on November 6 because of midterm election coverage, driving a 14 percent bump in overall global viewership that day. Other political events near the end of 2018 contributed to additional spikes, including a 161 percent increase during Supreme Court nomination coverage for Brett Kavanaugh, and a 67 percent increase related to the passing of former U.S. President George H.W. Bush.
Overall, live viewership was up 65 percent in viewing hours year-over-year. Minutes viewed per play increased nearly 9 percent to 26.6 minutes.
Viewers also tuned in to watch live sporting events, with the World Cup driving viewing hours up 29 percent on a single day and a 12 percent jump in time spent watching globally over the course of the tournament. Sporting events like the Olympics, NFL coverage, March Madness basketball and the Masters Golf Tournament also contributed to viewing spikes.
Virtual MVPDs like Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, and DirecTV Now that offer entertainment from multiple sources are experiencing more rapid increases in viewing time than individual publisher apps, the report shows. Viewing hours for vMVPDs grew 74 percent faster than publisher apps in the U.S. during Q4. According to Conviva, vMVPDs saw on average 25 minutes per play, compared to 14 minutes for publisher apps.
Connected TVs are the viewing vessel of choice, with 77 percent of all vMVPD viewing hours in the U.S. happening on smart TVs. Overall, Conviva reports a 148 percent increase in plays on connected TVs, with the devices accounting for a 56 percent share of viewing hours in 2018. This compares to mobile devices, which saw a 94 percent increase in plays, but still accounted for 24 percent of viewing hours, down from 25 percent in 2017. PCs lagged far behind, growing only 1 percent in plays, and taking 15 percent share of viewing hours, down from 22 percent the year prior.
When it comes to connected TV devices, Roku is still the dominant leader with 41 percent share of viewing hours. However, Amazon Fire TV shot into second place (up from 7th in 2017), capturing 18 percent share, which is up 240 percent from the year prior.
Rounding out the top five connected TV devices were Xbox (11 percent), Apple TV (9 percent) and PlayStation (9 percent).
Conviva said it analyzes 50 billion annual streams, across 200 million users, using its sensor technology embedded within 3 billion video applications on streaming devices, which measures 1 trillion data events per day.
