US viewers increasingly VOD first for video consumption
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| 14 March 2018

Parks Associates research has found that live TV viewing in the US has continued to decline with 60% of video viewed on the TV now from on-demand services with the trend particularly pronounced among young consumers.

The Shifting Video Consumption: Linear vs. On-Demand report measured the shift in consumption from linear to on-demand across platforms and sources of content to assess how this shift will impact the business of broadcast, pay-TV and online TV. It found that just over a quarter of television viewing by consumers ages 18 to 34 was of live sources, including pay-TV, over-the-air channels, and livestreaming.

In addition, it observed that the highest average consumption of linear TV content was among married respondents (at 7.8 hours) while the highest average consumption of non-linear TV content is among respondents who are unmarried and living with a partner at 13.1 hours.

“Live TV is far from dead, but on-demand sources are claiming an increasingly large portion of viewing,” said Brett Sappington, senior analyst, Parks Associates, commenting on the report. “In addition, a larger portion of live content viewing is moving online. Among TV viewers who watch live broadcasts on a TV, 17% of their live TV viewing is through an online video service with live content such as CBS All-Access, Univision Now or PlutoTV. Among heads of households under the age of 35 who watch live TV, the percentage of online sources jumps to 30%. Interestingly, consumers who have never had pay-TV still spend approximately one-third of their TV viewing time watching live content, primarily from over-the-air TV channels. They also spend almost half as much time watching video on a TV overall as do average broadband households.”

Looking forward in The Shifting Video Consumption: Linear vs. On-Demand report, Parks expected viewers to retain the habits they have grown up with and used over time, and advised the pay-TV industry and advertisers that was important for them to adjust their business approach and offerings to align with the expectations and viewing habits of TV-viewing consumer segments.