Streaming TV services continue to dominate traditional platforms as the home for consumers’ recently-discovered favourite shows, yet a study from Hub Entertainment Research has found that thanks to several high-profile, buzz-worthy shows, live TV is showing signs of new life in 2022.
Hub’s Conquering Content study, examining the various ways TV consumers discover and watch TV shows and films, was conducted among 1,602 US consumers with broadband, age 16-74, who watch at least one hour of TV per week. The top line finding. was that 71% of consumers indicated that they’ve discovered a show in the past year that has become a favourite, and a strong majority said that show is a show they watch on a streaming service.
Three-quarters of those who have discovered a favorite show watch it online, compared with 23% who watched from an MVPD source—live TV, video-on-demand, or a DVR. eThe remaining 2% watched their newly discovered show via over-the-air.
And most interestingly, Hub observed that up until this year, these two viewing sources have been moving seemingly inexorably in opposite directions, but something changed in 2022. Indeed, it added that the steady, year-by-year increase it has seen since 2016 for online sources as the home base for favourite shows plateaued in 2022 with the 75% proportion identical to that measured in 2021. By contrast, the proportion watching their new favourite from an MVPD set-top box increased two points, from 21% in 2021.
Pointedly, Hub said that it had witnessed a more significant change in direction when focussing on the two most popular sources for favourite-show viewing. The proportion saying their new favourite show is a Netflix show peaked in 2020 at 38%, dropping three percentage points to 35% in 2021 and has now declined to 29%. After reaching a low of 15% in 2021, live TV from a traditional MVPD service jumped back up six points in 2022, to 21%. The Big 5 SVODs outside of Netflix – that is Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+ and HBO Max – climbed 4 points year-on-year to 25%.
Of the 10 favourite shows viewers named most frequently, four of them—including three of the top four—are available on live TV: Yellowstone, House of the Dragon, Ghosts, and NCIS.
Three-quarters of those who have discovered a favorite show watch it online, compared with 23% who watched from an MVPD source—live TV, video-on-demand, or a DVR. eThe remaining 2% watched their newly discovered show via over-the-air.
And most interestingly, Hub observed that up until this year, these two viewing sources have been moving seemingly inexorably in opposite directions, but something changed in 2022. Indeed, it added that the steady, year-by-year increase it has seen since 2016 for online sources as the home base for favourite shows plateaued in 2022 with the 75% proportion identical to that measured in 2021. By contrast, the proportion watching their new favourite from an MVPD set-top box increased two points, from 21% in 2021.
Pointedly, Hub said that it had witnessed a more significant change in direction when focussing on the two most popular sources for favourite-show viewing. The proportion saying their new favourite show is a Netflix show peaked in 2020 at 38%, dropping three percentage points to 35% in 2021 and has now declined to 29%. After reaching a low of 15% in 2021, live TV from a traditional MVPD service jumped back up six points in 2022, to 21%. The Big 5 SVODs outside of Netflix – that is Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+ and HBO Max – climbed 4 points year-on-year to 25%.
Of the 10 favourite shows viewers named most frequently, four of them—including three of the top four—are available on live TV: Yellowstone, House of the Dragon, Ghosts, and NCIS.
