In what represents a bump of roughly six million households over the last twelve months, 76% of US broadband households now subscribe to an OTT service says research from Parks Associates and Reelgood.
The survey of 10,000 broadband households, fielded between 8 March and 3 April to 10,000 US heads of broadband households, and essentially revealed an increase in streaming video viewership during the Covid-19 outbreak. It found that in the research period adoption of online pay-TV services such as YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV and Sling TV has increased to 12% of US broadband households.“We are closely tracking shifts in technology use at home, as shelter-in-place orders have continued as a result of Covid-19,” said Steve Nason, research director, Parks Associates. “Consumers are experimenting with watching video on different services and different devices. We anticipate a number of changes to occur, including higher consumption combined with reduced spending per month on services, which could boost ad-based services, as well as shifts in what content consumers are watching.”
Data from streaming sources aggregator Reelgood from its 4.8 million OTT users from 16 March 16 to 26 April showed that following widespread stay-at-home mandates, viewers exhibited significant shifts in preferred genres and shows. Genres including comedy, faith and spirituality, and children increased their viewer share, while genres horror, war, and crime declined slightly.
In the Reelgood survey period, the most popular shows were Ozark, Money Heist and Tiger King, all from Netflix. The most popular film was Parasite. The show Doctor Foster and the film The Silver Linings Playbook had the most significant jumps in popularity from pre-Covid (17 February to 15March) to post-Covid (16 March to 26 April).
“One of the biggest shifts—and opportunities—that we’re noticing is the massive spike in children’s content available to stream,” said Reelgood head of marketing Catharine Burhenne. “The entertainment businesses who thrive during the Covid and post-Covid eras will be the ones who can cater their offerings to accommodate the huge appetite for streaming kids’ content. Tubi’s launch of its app Tubi Kids is an example of businesses capitalising on this opportunity.”
