Where do you go to get the news of the day? Well many of us now find it 24/7 from mobile and other digital properties. Well add one more resource to your content arsenal as another News
organization just made it even easier to find the news you want whenever and wherever you want. Today ABC
announced the launch of their new online video initiative called GoStream.
According to the network, they are putting more power in the hands of their reporters as the new service allows any of ABC's field journalists to fire up an app and begin sending raw video to ABC News, which will then disseminate the streams to ABC News via the LiveU streaming platforms. ABC News will then
disseminate on its ABCNews.com/live platform – which will undergo a redesign as well as its mobile apps and Apple TV. Viewers will be able to choose from
any number of feeds during major events, which will not air with a delay. The
program could be broadened to include civilians that live stream as well. More: Mashable.com 12/02/14 - Live from everywhere: ABC News journalists will stream video to your screen
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Late yesterday, measurement specialist comScore, issued a research paper titled "The U.S. Total Video Report" that looks at shifting TV viewing habits in the digital age. There's little doubt that American's viewing patterns are quickly changing, and our youth are leading the way. The study – The U.S. Total Video Report, which tabulated results from 1,159 respondents in August – found that Millennials (adults 18 -34), watch original TV shows on digital platforms one-third of the time. ComScore notes that the older the viewer, the more likely to watch on a TV set. In other bad news for TV broadcasters, comScore found that 1 in 6 millennials hadn't watched an original series on a TV set in the past month. Instead, they're getting their video from set-top boxes such as Roku and Apple TV, and game consoles.
Unsurprisingly, Millennials are also more likely to be cord-nevers or cord-cutters and they are more likely to time-shift their viewing: 46 percent of them time-shift shows, while only 35 percent of those 35 to 54 do so. Among other findings, consumers who subscribe to paid digital video services are more likely to binge-view TV shows over a monthly period – 87% vs. 69%. TV via the DVR (43%) is the preferred binge-viewing platform, followed by the TV via VOD (19%); Internet connected TV devices (12%); live TV – a category that includes reruns or marathons from MVPDs – (11%); tablets (4%), desktops/laptops (3%); and smartphones (2%).
While comScore's results are interesting, their methodology and approach called Total Video to track unduplicated audience metrics across platforms has some flaws. ComScore surveyed 1,159 viewers with an online questionnaire, so those surveyed are all active internet users. The report is available for free download (registration required). MORE: TechCrunch 10/14/14 - Netflix Leads In U.S. Digital Video Subscriptions In Home And Among Millennials by Ingrid Lunden
Recent reports state that connected devices have exceeded 1 billion home makes one wonder where the "cord cutters" really are when new data from analysts MoffettNathanson shows that the pay-TV business only lost about 300,000 subscribers in Q2. But that’s basically flat compared to a year ago, and that’s a change from the year-on-year declines of the previous few quarters.
And after factoring in the housing market a key driver for pay TV the research firm concludes that “it appears that cord cutting slowed to an annualized rate of 400k homes, a meaningful deceleration and well below the peak rates of cord cutting seen in 2012.” More: Recode.net 08/07/14 - "What Happened to all the Cord Cutters?"
If you don't have a streaming media player (we have two and I'm considering a third already!) by now, it's likely you will in the next few years. According to the NPD Group, the number of streaming media devices in the U.S. will reach 204 million with in the next three years, an increase of 100% and a total that will be more than double the number of projected households connected to the Internet.
The connection rate is also projected to
increase. While 60% of Internet-capable devices are currently connected, NPD
projects that 76% of installed units will be connected by 2017. The evolution of hardware and digital content distribution is constantly changing the TV viewing experience," said Buffone, executive director of NPD Connected Intelligence, “The hardware is able to engage with consumers in ways that it hadn’t before. Over the coming years, the consumer’s preferred device for apps on TV will be shaped by the next generation of video game consoles, Smart TVs, and a new wave of streaming media players.” MORE: RapidTVNews.com 07/23/2014 - Connected TV device market to skyrocket in US or MediaPost 07/22/14 - Connected TV Device Market Set To Explode
New research from Parks Associates and also from Strategy Analytics
puts the number of connected TV devices, which includes set-top boxes, smart
televisions, game consoles and more, now exceeds 1 billion installed units, and
are on pace to hit the 2 billion mark by 2018. No surprise that Roku is now the most widely used
streaming media player in 44 percent of American homes that watch online video
through their living room TV.
The studies verify that nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of
pay-TV subscribers have at least one device connected to their TV, according to
Parks, an increase from 53 percent in 2013.
Roku devices and Apple TVs account for 72 percent of streaming media
device sales in the U.S. in 2013. Up and coming Google’s Android TV/Chromecast and
Amazon's new entry, FireTV could both prove to be strong future competitors,
the report notes, while also pointing out Apple TV as a "sleeping
giant." MORE: 07/10/14 - techcrunch.com - Connected TV Market Crosses 1B Devices As Google Pins Its Hopes On Android TV or ParksAssociates - The Evolving Market for Streaming Media Devices (sub. req.) or 07/09/14 FierceCable - Parks: Roku owns 44% of the U.S. OTT device market
According to a new research report from Parks Associates,
(64%) of US broadband households have at least one consumer electronics device connected
to the Internet, which could include a smart TV, Blu-ray player, game console,
set-top box, a digital media receiver or Google Chromecast. Gaming consoles
were found to be the most popular of connected devices. The report also noted that
of the 50+% of U.S. households that use connected consumer electronics devices also
subscribe to Netflix. By comparison, Amazon, which has made significant gains in the
OTT video market this past year now has nearly 20 per cent of all US broadband households as Amazon Prime Instant Video subscribers.
Among those who use streaming media players, Roku owners access new subscription video platforms more than Apple TV which becomes more interesting when you factor in that currently there are more Apple TV devices deployed. This new research was published and presented at this week's NAB show by Parks Associates where they profiled the different device owners streaming and content purchasing habits. Their findings showed that 86% of Roku owners use one or more subscription OTT service, versus only 77% of Apple TV owners. Additionally, 75% of Roku owners use Netflix, compared to 63% among the Apple TV crowd. As a point of difference, more Apple TV owners use Amazon Prime Instant Video – 40% versus 28% and Apple TV also has a clear lead in sales passing $1 billion last year. On a similar topic, the latest study from video delivery firm Qwilt shows that Amazon's Instant Video is the third largest video site (March 2014), behind Netflix (57.5 percent) and YouTube (16.9 percent). Although it's sitting at a modest 3%, Amazon is still beating out Hulu (2.8 percent). I expect to see this number rising considerably, since this data was collected before the Fire TV set-top box hit the market last week. More: 04/09/14 Advanced Television - More Roku owners than Apple TV owners use OTT and 04/09/14 Multichannel News - Roku Tops Apple TV In OTT Usage: Study and Qwilt 04/04/14 - Amazon Rising – Amazon’s Streaming Video Surpasses Hulu and Apple
