14% of Samsung TVs use the same app whenever TV is turned on
Details
John Moulding
| 30 November 2023
1 14 of Samsung TVs use the same app whenever TV is turned on
The latest ‘Behind the Screens’ report from Samsung Ads Europe looked at app-based TV viewing and found that 14% of devices use the same app every day or whenever the TV is turned on. The figures relate to UK users of Samsung Smart TVs.

The report also shows that TV owners are often in ‘discovery mode’. Still focused on app-based viewing in the UK (on Samsung televisions), the authors identify a multi-touchpoint session as a continuous session where an app switch is identified, and where any break between apps does not exceed five minutes in duration. 39% of multi-touchpoint sessions flick between an average of three different apps in a single sitting. However, instinct seems to win out: 57% of users who are shifting between apps end up back on the first app they used.

The ‘Behind the Screens’ report, called ‘Anatomy of a Streamer', focused on the use of Samsung Smart TVs (which is a large and almost certainly representative sample, given the company’s market penetration). It found that the average device regularly uses two SVOD services, one AVOD service and one BVOD. These and all following figures relate to the UK unless stated otherwise.

Primetime in Samsung television set homes is dominated by broadcast linear, BVOD and SVOD, with these ‘formats’ peaking around 8-10pm, whereas AVOD peaks at 6-8pm. AVOD is consistently used throughout the day, when linear, BVOD and SVOD are less prominent. SVOD peaks at the weekend, along with gaming, when BVOD and AVOD consumption ‘slumps’, according to the report.

The rise in streaming, both exclusively and in combination with linear viewing, shows no signs of slowing down, with 84% of Samsung TV owners now streaming. That is an 11% rise year-on-year. In September 2023, exclusive streamers averaged 81 hours per TV per month.

When looking at total time spent viewing, ad-funded streaming saw 18% year-on-year growth, with FAST growing by 32%. BVOD takes up less time overall on devices but has seen strong growth of 24%, Samsung reports.

SVOD is still by far the highest app category by adoption, with 87% of streamers accessing this content type. SVOD also dominates overall time spent in apps, but has seen the slowest growth compared to other VOD types, at 7%. “This suggests there is less headroom for growth,” the report authors suggest.

There is a clear demographic split on viewing consumption. ‘Behind the Screens’ shows that Gen Z watches an average of 2 hours and 5 minutes of streamed content per day, compared to just over an hour for Baby Boomers.

During the first half of this year, there were more than 7.1 billion app opens on Samsung Smart TVs in the EU5. 1.7bn of these were in the UK.

Methodology:
The report draws on proprietary business intelligence analysis by Samsung Consumer Electronics, using available data in September 2023, with streaming sessions analysed over H1 23.
Viewing figures are based on a minimum session length of three minutes across Tizen OS TVs shipped in 2016-2023.
A streaming session is characterised by continuous app usage lasting three minutes or more. A session end is when there is a break in app usage lasting five minutes.