Streaming up by 57% in Q1, says Conviva

Streaming consumption has increased massively under the impact of coronavirus, according to Conviva’s latest State of Streaming report, with overall streaming viewing up 57% globally in the first quarter 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., according to Comviva.

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 – at least in the first quarter. The English 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.

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, according to the report. 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.

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 dripping by 49%, 37% higher picture quality, buffering improvements of 33%, and 15% faster video start times, according to Conviva. As a result, Roku also boosted viewing hours by 55% year over year.

While the coronavirus has boosted streaming consumption, the same cannot be said for streaming advertising.

Conviva analysed more than 12.5 billion ad attempts in Q1 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 COVID-19 news content, as well as an increase in quality errors.

“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.”

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