More than half of US viewers enjoy on-demand streaming
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Michelle Clancy
| 07 August 2019

As of May 2019, 134.2 million (56%) of US adults streamed non-linear video to their TV set through an internet-connected device or smart television.

That’s according to the latest edition of Nielsen’s Local Watch Report, entitled TV Streaming Across Our Cities, which focusses on the impact that streaming and access to subscription video on-demand services is having on the media landscape, particularly at the market level. With 65% of homes now having access to an enabled internet-connected device or smart TV (and growing), this is affecting local stations, programmers and advertisers, the firm said.

Compared with just two years ago, 40 million more Americans are streaming content to their TV sets. As reach continues to grow, frequency is increasing as well. The average adult now spends 11 days streaming each month (up from nine days in 2017) and they’re spending more minutes per viewing session.

“Streamers have a huge value proposition—they are younger, and many have children in their homes,” the report noted.

They’re also more likely to be college graduates who are employed and earn a higher income than non-streamers.

Other data points include the fact that streamers are also big consumers of local news and seek out local content wherever they are, with 38% streamers accessing local news on social sites versus 25% non-streamers.

There’s also a data point that argues against widespread cord-cutting: Nielsen found that 82% of adult streamers watch linear broadcast stations, and almost 90% watch linear cable networks.