2Conviva’s State of the Streaming TV Industry|Q3 2018
Conviva’s State of the
Streaming TV Industry
Q3 2018
Conviva is the real-time measurement and intelligence platform
for streaming TV, with a global footprint of 50 billion streams
per year across 3 billion applications and 200 million users.
In Q3 2018, Conviva measured the following key shifts, which
demonstrate that providers must offer both a high-quality
streaming experience and a breadth of content as the streaming
TV ecosystem continues to mature.
Streams
per Year
Viewers
Worldwide
Streaming
Applications
50B200M3B
Conviva’s Video AI Platform provides insight into the consumer’s streaming experience across all screens and applications at
scale, for many of the world’s top streaming TV providers across 180 countries and four continents. Conviva’s data is collected
using proprietary sensor technology, which is embedded directly within 3 billion streaming video applications and currently
measures 1 trillion data events per day across Conviva’s customer base. In this report, the year-over-year data from Q3 2018 as
compared to Q3 2017 was normalized based on Conviva’s consistent customer base.
Streaming TV consumption continues to grow at a
staggering rate with a 52% increase in plays and a 63%
increase in viewing hours globally.
o In tandem, consumer expectations for streaming
quality continue to soar.
Connected TVs deliver the best streaming experience of
all devices, and as a result saw a 145% increase in plays
while PCs declined by 18%.
o The thirst for a high-quality viewing experience is one
of the drivers behind the signifcant shift to connected
TVs.
Viewers are increasingly opting for superior-quality
bundled offerings from virtual MVPDs like Hulu, Sling,
PlayStation Vue, and others which saw increases of
292% in plays and 212% in viewing hours.
o Virtual MVPDs now account for more than 75% of all
streaming TV in the United States.
Live streaming adoption has increased as quality has
improved, with plays up 49% and viewing time up 54%
year-over-year for all live TV content.
o NFL live viewing increased at a faster rate than the
global trend, up 72% in plays and 83% in viewing
hours.
Despite the focus on live streaming for major sporting
events like the World Cup, which drove a 10% bump in
traffc during the weeks the tournament was played in
Q3, long-form video on demand (VOD) content saw the
biggest gains year-over-year.
o Long-form content saw 111% and 93% increase in
plays and viewing hours respectively, increasing
share to more than half of all global viewing
Conviva measured.
3Conviva’s State of the Streaming TV Industry|Q3 2018
0-0.4
0.4-0.6
0.6-0.8
0.8-1
1-2
2-3
3-4
4-5
5-10
10-50
50-100
32.05
26.51
23.14
20.93
17.74
13.93
11.75
10.55
8.29
4.25
0.86
REB
UFF
ERI
NG
RA
TIO
(%
)
PLAY DURATION/ENGAGEMENT (MINUTES)
Q1 2018 .88%
Q2 2018 .78%
Q3 2018 .57%
Buffering has now decreased for three consecutive quarters.
The Continued Rise of Global Streaming
GROWTH IN Q3 2018
52%63%
V
IEW
IN
G
HO
UR
S
PL
AY
S
Viewers are becoming even less tolerant of the dreaded buffering wheel, but
streaming TV providers have clearly focused on delivering a better viewing
experience, with buffering decreasing by more than 40% year-over-year.
As global streaming continued to grow rapidly in Q3, streaming TV providers
were pushed to deliver more content than ever while exceeding viewer
expectations for streaming quality. Quality and viewer engagement have
historically been tightly correlated, and Q3 2018 was no exception as minutes
per play increased to 20.1 minutes from 18.8 minutes the previous year.
Conviva measured a 52% increase in plays and a 63% increase in viewing
hours year-over-year, while overall video quality made great strides with picture
quality up by 25%, and video start times and video start failures down 7% and
33% respectively.
Video Start Failures
33% FEWER
Exits Before Video Starts
10% MORE
Video Start Time
7% FASTER
Bitrate Picture Quality
25% BETTER
Rebuffering Ratio
41% IMPROVED
PC Lags as Connected TVs Capture Viewers
When it comes to how viewers tune in, mobile viewing continues to rise
steadily – growing 57% year-over-year – but mobile no longer dominates
streaming as it once did. Instead, connected TVs, which offer a higher-quality
viewing experience across almost every metric as compared to other devices,
experienced a 145% growth in plays and a 103% growth in viewing hours
year-over-year. Connected TVs now account for as many streaming TV plays
as mobile devices with 38% and 39% share respectively, and more than twice
as many hours of viewing time with 56% and 25% share respectively. In sharp
contrast, consumption on PCs was down by 18%, as viewers made the switch
to higher quality alternatives with quality markedly lower on PCs. Connected
TVs continue to be a major driver for the overall growth of streaming TV, with
plays and viewing hours on connected TVs more than doubling over the
past year.
57%
-18%
145%
MOBILE/TABLET
PC
CONNECTED TV
Growth in Plays vs Q3 2017
GLOBAL QUALITY
4Conviva’s State of the Streaming TV Industry|Q3 2018
Quality has improved signif cantly for connected TV devices as a whole
and is ref ected in the top f ve devices that drive the most connected TV
viewing among Conviva’s customers. Signif cant declines of 30-70% in
buffering are particularly impressive because picture quality has also
improved drastically by 14-54%. Among Conviva’s customer base, Roku
maintained a lead in market share with 34% of all plays and 40% of all
viewing hours Conviva measured in Q3 2018. At the same time, Amazon
Fire TV gained signif cant share of the market since Q3 2017 among
Conviva’s customer base, increasing its share of plays from 4% to 19% and
its share of viewing hours from 3% to 18% over a 12-month period.
SHA
RE OF V
IEWING HO
URS
CO
NN
ECT
ED T
V DEV
ICE SHARE OF VIE
WIN
G H
OU
RS
14%
25%
5%
45%
21%
27%
7%OTHERS
Mobile/TabletOther
PCConnected TVPC
Mobile/TabletOther
Connected TV
Q3 2018Q3 2017
11%
40%
12%
18%
5%
10%
3%
56%
PICTURE
QUALITY
(BITRATE)
BUFFERING
IMPROVEMENT
0.28
-51%
-68%
-30%
-70%-65%
15%
29%
54%
38%
14%
7.05.55.55.15.6
0.220.190.290.19
Q3 NUMBERS AND YOY GROWTH
Changing The Way Viewers Tune In: Virtual MVPDs
Bundled offerings from virtual MVPDs offer viewers a streaming TV experience that most closely resembles traditional cable or
satellite TV, but with additional benef ts for cord-cutters of a broader mix of content relative to individual publisher apps. Over
the last 12 months, consumers have f ocked to these services, which have experienced year-over-year growth of 292% in plays
and 212% in viewing hours in the United States. Conversely, publisher apps experienced a 16% decline in plays and a 9%
decline in viewing hours. As a result, virtual MVPDs now account for over three-quarters of all plays and viewing hours in
the United States – a signif cant shift from just a year ago.
GROWTH VS Q3 2017|PUBLISHER vs. VIRTUAL MVPD
292%
212%
-16%-9%
PublisherVirtual MVPD
PLAYSVIEWINGHOURS
GROWTH VS Q3 2017|PUBLISHER VS. VIRTUAL MVPD
QUALITY
BY DEVICE
%
PublisherVirtual MVPD
Q3 2
018
Q3 2
017
Q3 2
018
Q3 2
017
75398156
SHARE OFPLAYSVIEWING HOURS
v.s
Q3。