
The percentage of U.S. smart TVs used exclusively for
watching streamed content rose from 45% in Q4 2021 to 54% in this year’s third quarter, according to the latest quarterly TV market trends report from ACR data provider Inscape.
The percentage of smart TVs used to view content exclusively from traditional cable, satellite or over-the-top/OTA sources dropped from 9% to just 5% during the same period.
And the
percentage of smart TVs used to watch both streamed content and traditional pay-TV and/or OTA content declined from 46% to 41%.
Inscape used data from 22 million-plus Vizio U.S. smart
TVs, and a nationally representative panel, for the analysis.
Fully 94% of total streaming time in Q3 was driven by viewers who only (64.6%) or mostly (29%) streamed on their smart
TVs.
That means that the 54% of smart TV viewers who make up 65% of smart TV viewing time are not reachable by traditional cable/satellite/OTA advertising — a compelling argument
for including some of the ad-supported tiers now being offered by the leading streaming services in media buys, notes Inscape.
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Looking at Q3 over the past three years, streaming has increased its share of viewing
time in U.S. TV households by 9.4 percentage points, with the largest gains occurring in Q3 2023 (up six points).
As a result, streaming’s share of viewing time has increased from 46.5%
to 55.9% in Q3 since 2021, while cable/satellite has fallen from 44.3% to 34.9%.
Gaming and over-the-air antenna (OTA) viewing shares have remained relatively consistent.

A month-by-month analysis of streaming’s
share of viewership shows that it set a new record during the Q3 2023 summer months, when U.S. TV households spent 56% of their monthly view time streaming.

The growing number of cord cutters gets ample coverage, but Inscape reports that the
numbers of consumers who still have cable or satellite services but have stopped watching them entirely is also rising -- increasing from 4% per quarter to 5.7% per quarter since Q4 2022, and
averaging 4.4% per quarter.
In addition, “quiet quitters” — cable/satellite subscribers who have sharply reducing their viewing time on these services — are on the
rise. Between Q3 2022 and Q3 2023, 11.9% cut their viewing time on those services by 75% or more, and 11.1% cut viewing time by between 50% and 74%.
Meanwhile, the average number of apps used
per smart TV doubled, from 2.6 to 5.4, between Q4 2021 and this year’s third quarter.
Importantly, however, cable/satellite/OTA continue to own sports and news viewing, commanding
76.7% and 81.8% viewing shares, respectively, in Q3.
More specifically, those platforms accounted for 71.9% of NFL viewing, 71.3% of college football viewing, and 77.8% of viewing of the two
Republican presidential candidates’ debates during the quarter.
