Streaming media intelligence company released its quarterly State of Streaming report for Q1 2020 today, revealing large increases in viewing, a significant rise in missed advertising opportunities, unexpected social leaders on TikTok and the continued dominance of Roku in the connected TV space.
Content Anytime, On Any Device
Streaming consumption habits changed significantly in Q1 2020, particularly in the month of March as stay-at-home orders became widespread and live sports were suspended. The quarter saw large increases in overall streaming viewing, up 57% globally year over year. Growth was led by Europe, up 70%, and the Americas, up 57%, while Asia and Africa saw 30% and 25% viewing growth respectively. As viewing habits changed globally, on-demand content increased 79% over the year, representing a 72% share of total viewing time worldwide.
Missed Advertising Opportunities Spike
Conviva analyzed more than 12.5 billion ad attempts in Q1 2020 and found 46.3% of all streaming ads represented missed opportunities due to unfilled ads or ad failures. This was an increase of 26.9% as compared to Q4, largely due to a reduction in advertising and brand sensitivity to running ads adjacent to tragic COVID-19 news content, as well as an increase in quality errors. As with poor quality, unfilled ads directly impact viewer experience as viewers often wait while multiple requests go unfilled.
“Nearly half of all streaming ads are now missed opportunities, signifying a significant – and likely prolonged – drop in advertising spend due to economic uncertainties and a lack of consumer spending,” said Bill Demas, CEO of Conviva. “Companies that are not highly reliant on advertising will record increasing success over the next quarter. Advertising dollars will likely return to streaming with a vengeance when live sports reemerges this fall.”
Sports Continues to Successfully Tap Social Video
While the volume of sports-related social content was down in year over year Q1 2020, sports organizations still managed to drive increases in engagement. Premier League scored the greatest increase in engagements per post and engagements per video up 146% and 142% respectively, followed by the NBA with 119% and 126% increases respectively.
Conviva also identified which teams outperformed the field in engagements per social video. For example, unlikely suspects from smaller media markets, including the Milwaukee Bucks, Cincinnati Reds, Winnipeg Jets, and Orlando City Soccer Club, joined ratings juggernaut Dallas Cowboys as league-leaders in engagement on TikTok. In the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers clinched the Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter titles. The Pittsburgh Penguins conquered those same platforms for the NHL. Other leagues saw more disparity across the different platforms, with the Kansas City Chiefs and the New York Yankees each earning a top spot on two social networks—a feat the LA Galaxy also netted in MLS.
Roku Reigns with Continued Quality Improvements
Roku, the leader in connected TV devices with a 44% share of global connected TV viewing time, was the only device to net quality improvements across the board, with video start failures plunging 49%, 37% higher picture quality, buffering improvements of 33%, and 15% faster video start times. As a result, Roku also boosted viewing hours by 55% year over year.
Across all devices, global streaming quality continued to improve with buffering down 27%, picture quality up 25%, and 14% fewer video start failures year over year. Mobile reported the most progress with 38% less buffering, 27% higher picture quality and 13% fewer start failures. Mobile also netted the largest viewing growth year over year in Q1, up 60%, compared to 51% growth for connected TV and just 22% growth for PCs.
Methodology
Data for Conviva’s State of Streaming report was primarily collected from Conviva’s proprietary sensor technology currently embedded in three billion streaming video applications, measuring in excess of 500 million unique viewers watching 150 billion streams per year with 1.5 trillion real-time transactions per day across more than 180 countries. Year-over-year comparisons were normalized at the customer level for accurate representations of industry growth. The advertising data included in the report is based on an analysis of 12.5 billion ad attempts in Q1. This social media data included in this report is based on an analysis of over 15 million posts, 1.7 million videos, and over 2.9 billion engagements across Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
