• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, December 22, 2023

In case anyone had any doubt about what single force has had the greatest impact on the television business in recent years, a summary of stats from Hub Entertainment Research makes the point in dramatic fashion.

To mark its tenth anniversary, the company compared survey findings on several key consumer behaviors from 2013 and 2023.

Conclusion: “Without a doubt, streaming — particularly to the TV screen — is the biggest change this industry has seen in the period, and it got supercharged by the pandemic.”

For instance, streaming via a smart TV has tripled since 2013, from 21% of homes to 68%. That, Hub points out, reflects not just the growth of streaming service choices, but technology changes that have allowed smart TVs to simultaneously become much more user-friendly and less expensive.

The drop in the proportion of consumers reporting that they have MVPD services and the rise in those saying they are cord cutters or cord nevers obviously confirm the continuing decline in willingness to pay for costly cable and satellite packages. And the reversal in the dominant default choice when a TV session is launched — from MVPDs to streaming platforms — indicates that streaming is now also “dominating viewers’ share of mind,” notes Hub.

The leap in average number of TV platforms used, from 2.6 to 7, helps explain the crisis in content discovery, the researchers add. “Just think of “Yellowstone,” which premieres on Paramount Channel on cable, streams repeats on Peacock, streams its prequel series on Paramount+, and is now being shown on the CBS broadcast network. Can you blame viewers for getting confused?”

Going forward, the Hub analysts wonder “if broadcast networks as we know them will remain or transition to all streaming,” and whether NextGen TV can gain traction with consumers “who already barely understand the difference between HD and 4K and 8K.”

They also observe that cloud gaming is likely to open up the lucrative high-end gaming space to players including Netflix and Amazon, and that games may be “the next Marvel or DC” in terms of being a source of content/IP.