• by Alex Weprin , January 4, 2018

The number of hours consumers spent streaming over-the-top video was up more than 100% in 2017 compared to the prior year, according to Conviva, a company that provides measurement and analytics to streaming video on demand services.

Conviva, as part of its Streaming Market Year In Review, measured 12.6 billion viewing hours in 2017 across its customer base, an increase of more than 100% from 2016. Those 12.6 billion hours were spread across 2.4 billion devices, with 58% of OTT viewing taking place in North America, compared to 21% in Europe and 19% in Asia.

Conviva measured 38.8 billion total plays, up 74% from the previous year. At one point, Conviva measured 9.76 million concurrent connections by users, a significant jump (again, of more than 100%) compared to the previous year, but also a stark reminder of how far streaming video has to go to match TV. Conviva says the peak concurrent events were driven in part by live sports, which often garner far more than nine million concurrent viewers on linear television.

The study also showed that Roku led the field in terms of OTT video consumption, accounting for 24% of viewing hours. Android Devices and video game consoles followed with 18% and 14%, respectively.

“Conviva has seen the viewing hour growth rate accelerate over the past several years as more consumers move their TV-watching from traditional linear pay TV services to a very wide variety of OTT services offered by both pure play OTT publishers and MVPDs as well as pay TV providers diversifying their service offerings,” the company said in its Streaming Market Year in Review. “Conviva expects to see continued accelerated growth over the course of 2018 across both existing and new customers.”