U.S. TV provider Comcast has the highest number of TV Everywhere subscribers with 10.1 million, beating out competitors like DirecTV, Time Warner Cable and Dish Network, according to a new report from analyst firm Rethink Research.
According to the report, DirecTV closely trailed Comcast with 9.3 million users and was followed in turn by TWC with 6.3 million, Dish Network and AT&T with 2.1 million each. Verizon (2 million), Charter (1.4 million) and Cablevision (200,000) brought up the bottom of the pack.
The report indicated that only about 33.5 million people in the U.S. use TV Everywhere regularly right now. That number, the report said, is dwarfed by the number of people who pay for a service or watch free YouTube videos.
“The big obstacle seems to be that only 25% of the public even know such services exist,” Rethink Research analyst Peter White said in the report.
In the report, White noted that “regular” use is a variable term that can mean anywhere from one to five hours per week to as much as 15 to 20 hours per week. White said, however, that the evidence indicates an average usage time of about 6 hours of viewing per week.
According to a GfK report released last month, more than half of homes with a pay-TV subscription say they use TV Everywhere services.
The increase appears to be driven largely by those in younger age groups (13-35 and 36-49), who were two to four times more likely to use mobile and smart TV apps for watching than respondents in the 50-64 age group.
However, despite increased usage of the service, only a quarter of respondents said they were familiar with the term “TV Everywhere.”