• by Wayne Friedman , December 10, 2021

Although overall streaming and connected TV (CTV) time use has grown and Netflix and YouTube remain dominant, strong competition has forced some digital-minded TV households to make cutbacks.

TVision says the average number of streamers' apps and digital TV services in households declined to 7.2 apps and services in the first quarter of 2021, from 7.7 in the fourth quarter of 2020.

This data includes virtual pay TV providers like Sling TV, Tubi and Pluto TV; streaming app-focused distributors, like Roku, and legacy cable TV companies streaming hubs, such as Comcast’s Xfinity and Charter’s Spectrum.

At the same time, researchers say, there is a rise in some homes with 10 or more apps/TV services -- now with a 30% share of all connected TV households.

The TVision report says U.S. viewers are watching more advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) services than subscription video-on-demand platforms (SVOD) -- now at a 38% share of time spent in the first quarter of this year (up 9.3 % versus a year ago), when looking at the entire connected TV landscape.

Subscription services are at 32%, down 8.6% from a year ago. It also notes that virtual pay TV providers' time spent has grown to around 21% from just under 20% share.

Netflix still dominates, in terms of overall streaming/digital TV share of time spent -- now at 20.5% in the third quarter of this year. YouTube comes next, with a 16.9% share. The streamer still has a massive 67% of U.S. TV households reach in the third quarter, said TVison.

Some notable changes in all CTV/digital TV service growth, year-over-year, or sequentially from the second quarter: Hulu, at a 13.5%; Amazon, 5.4%; Sling TV, 4.6%; Peacock, 2.6%; Apple TV+, at a 0.7% share.

TVision technology detects viewers in the room and determines what their eyes look at. Data for the report, which covers the period from January 1, 2020, to September 30, 2021, came from 5,000 U.S. homes, weighted to represent the country. It was self-reported by respondents, measured second by-second, person-by-person.