The Rise of Streaming Services and the Role of 3rd Party Measurement
To state the obvious, 2020 has been like no other year. With most Americans confined to their homes because of the coronavirus pandemic creating a “captive” audience, the demand for streaming content from home skyrocketed, leading to abrupt changes in viewership trends and audience profile, not to mention wider industry implications. In the worst of times, it was the best of times—for streaming.
To capitalize on this abundance of at-home audiences, many streaming services have made strong pushes to acquire subscribers in the last year – from Disney's Disney+, AT&T's HBO Max, Comcast NBC Universal's Peacock and more in-the-works. From major advertising spending for building awareness to creative pricing bundles, these services are attempting to differentiate themselves in their content and value to consumers.
Market Landscape and Advertising Spend
Comscore Ad Metrix Media Spend reporting indicates that Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, YouTube, and Amazon, accounted for $500MM in advertising spend in 2020 to promote their streaming platforms. Delivering video content through web platforms using the internet is video streaming. The usage of traditional ways of watching videos like television is rapidly declining, and video streaming platforms have become a necessity nowadays when most of our audience is present online.
The following data illustrates the distribution of the market among major providers:
| Platform | Market Share in US |
|---|---|
| Netflix | 30% |
| YouTube | 21% |
| Hulu | 12% |
| Amazon | 9% |
| Disney+ | 3% |
| Others | 25% |
Viewership Insights from Comscore’s Total Home Panel
In this article, we present a few interesting streaming services viewership insights from Comscore’s Total Home Panel, our flagship single-source measurement solution for providing granular insights into Over-the-Top (OTT), connected TV (CTV) and Internet of Things (IoT) device usage and content consumption. Among the top five OTT streaming services, Netflix is ranked first and garnered a share of 35.1% of viewership in terms of total hours measured across these five services in January 2021.
Netflix has been a dominant player amongst streaming services for years, but new services like Disney+ are still able to gain momentum compared to established services. Furthermore, among network-based streaming services, ESPN is ranked first and garnered a viewership share of 47.9%, with a sizable lead over other services in this group. Among vMVPD OTT apps, Spectrum is ranked first and garnered a viewership share of 31%, followed by Sling and Pluto.TV, Philo and Xfinity Stream.
The Impact of Timing and Content Consumption
Day of the week affects streaming viewership. While recognizing that the monthly share estimate has a daily variance, we analyzed how these streaming services perform throughout the referenced month and examined the share of each service by day of the week. Netflix’s viewing share in January 2021 on Monday among Top Five OTT Streaming services was 35.8%, higher than its average share across all seven days. There is a decline in its share during mid-week (Tuesday-Thursday) followed by an increase over the weekend.
Devices for Accessing Video Streaming Platforms
Devices used for accessing video streaming platforms vary in their technical dependencies and the reasoning for using them. Key devices include:
- PCs and Laptops: They mark the starting use for accessing video streaming platforms due to them being the first to use internet-based video services.
- Mobile Devices: Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are popular choices for accessing video streaming platforms because they are portable and convenient.
- Smart TVs: Smart TVs are popular for accessing video streaming platforms because they have built-in Wi-Fi and user-friendly interfaces through smart TV OS.
With the help of an advanced video streaming platform, you will eliminate all the technical obstacles for each aspect of video delivery, ultimately saving you time and money.
