News tracking the rise of over-the-top streaming services is nothing new. Parks Associates recently found that only about a third of traditional pay TV customers are happy with their service. Some 63 million U.S. broadband households already subscribe to an OTT video service, the firm added. Fluent LLC piled on to those stats earlier this month with findings that indicate around two-thirds of U.S. internet users overall watch or have access to a streaming service, as do 61 percent of cable subscribers.
But a new report from TVmaze sheds new light on just how quickly streaming TV channels are gaining ground.
Over the past year, TVmaze says the number of web-based channels viewed as a proportion of all channels nearly doubled from 5 percent in June 2016 to 9 percent in June 2017. Based on insights from its online television guide, TVmaze adds that users point to Netflix as the top spot for favorite streaming programming. Amazon Prime and Hulu were also near the top, according to TVmaze.
“From the high quality of streamed series that are quite apparent if you even glance at Netflix to the convenience of something like Amazon Prime, the streaming channels really are building momentum,” a TVmaze spokesperson comments. “We’re all hoping this will create a dynamic where the traditional channels also increase their quality and people who love great television, like ourselves and our users, benefit in a big way.”
