Streaming set to overtake linear TV globally

Global streaming grew 10% globally, including continued growth in mature markets like North America (5%) and Europe (9%), during the first quarter of 2022 as compared to Q1 2021, according to the latest State of Streaming report from Conviva, the continuous measurement analytics platform for streaming media.

Despite recent news of Netflix’s subscriber contraction, streaming continues to grow worldwide, encompassing an ever-growing stable of platforms offering unique and original content,” says Keith Zubchevich, President and CEO, Conviva. “In mature markets like the US and Europe, viewers are upscreening from small devices to Smart TVs, setting the foundation for streaming to overtake linear TV on the big screen.”

Conviva’s Q1 2022 report found big screens (which includes connected TVs, smart TVs and gaming consoles) continue to be the streaming device of choice, responsible for 77% of all streamed minutes globally in Q1 2022. Within the big screen category, smart TV viewing time grew by 34% while desktops and gaming consoles declined by 15% versus Q1 2021. Connected TV device viewing slightly declined again this quarter, down 1% YOY. Within the connected TV category, Roku maintained the largest share of viewing time (31%) with Amazon Fire coming in second at 16%.

When it came to actual minutes streamed, Android TV was the big leader in growth across all the top big screens—up 78%. In yet another win for smart TVs, LG TV, Samsung TV, and Vizio TV all also had double-digit growth, up about 20%.

Quality Improves with One Exception

Globally, bitrate/picture quality (up 17.3%), buffering (down nearly 1%) and video start failures (down 17.6%) all improved significantly. Video start times were the one negative mark in terms of quality, as the wait for videos to start increased in every region, up 30% globally. Viewers in Africa waited the longest (8 seconds) while Europe had the fastest start time, waiting just 4 seconds on average.

In Q4 2021, the streaming industry saw advertising delays and increased buffering, but streaming advertising bounced back nicely in Q1 2022. Ad impressions were up 18% and ad attempts were up 14%, thanks in part to big, live sporting events like the Super Bowl, March Madness and the Winter Olympics.

TikTok Reigns for Sports Leagues

Streaming on social platforms continues to be a key way for sports leagues to engage fans, and according to Conviva, TikTok was the only platform to grow its streaming audience share for every sports league measured. Bundesliga, Serie A, and the Premier League increased their audience share for streaming videos on TikTok the most at 6% each with the NFL coming right behind them with 4% growth on TikTok YOY. In fact, both Superbowl teams – the Rams and the Bengals – gained over 100k TikTok followers in a single day (Feb 13-14).

Methodology

Conviva’s data is primarily collected using proprietary sensor technology with a global footprint of more than 500 million unique viewers watching 200 billion streams per year across nearly 4 billion applications streaming on devices. Embedded directly within streaming video applications, the sensor measures across content and ads to analyse nearly three trillion real-time transactions per day for its customers. In the State of Streaming report, the year-over-year data from Q1 2022 as compared to Q1 2021 was normalised based on Conviva’s customer base. The social media data consists of data from over 2800 accounts, over 1.8 million posts, and over 10 billion engagements across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube in Q1 2022. Social data for professional sports leagues was collected from individual leader board lists for each sports league that totaled 262 individual team accounts and tallied over 5 billion cross-platform engagements in Q1 2022.