TiVo Survey: OTT Viewing Time Approaching Live TV

OTT viewing time is starting to approach that of live TV, according to TiVo’s Video Trends Report for second quarter 2019 (chart above).

More than half (52.4%) of respondents to the North American survey reported regularly watching one hour or more of OTT-delivered content, compared to 65.8% reporting the same for live …

9 comments about "TiVo Survey: OTT Viewing Time Approaching Live TV".
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  1. Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, September 20, 2019 at 10:23 a.m.

    When nearly 1 in 5 viewers is no longer interested in linear TV, up from 1 in 10, it might be time to question the whole linear model.

  2. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, September 20, 2019 at 10:38 a.m.

    You wish, Douglas. "Linear TV" dwarfs OTT in terms of viewing time and will continue to be far ahead until OTT offers the same wide array of content that is only available on "linearTV". Sorry. That does not mean that OTT/SVOD wont continue to increaee its total share of viewing time---now about 10-15%. Also, "linear TV" content---and eventually ads---is now moving to OTT/SVOD in a big way---via Disney, Comcast, CBS/viacom, etc. What may eventually happen is that as more of these new services---and, probably, Netflix----offer ad-supported options that advertisers will move large portions of their premium content dollars into OTT/SVOD---albeit at much higher CPMs than what they are now paying. At which point, it matters less and less exactly how the content is delivered and more about how well the ads are targeted and how effective they are.

  3. Jack Wakshlag from Media Strategy, Research & Analytics, September 20, 2019 at 1:16 p.m.

    If TiVo measures all viewing to all sources on its devices, isn’t it a huge step backwards to get viewing data and viewing trends from surveys?  Why TiVo, why? 

  4. Jenny Gomez from TiVo replied, September 20, 2019 at 2:14 p.m.

    Hey Jack! Good point, and yes, we do capture viewing from ours and partner devices but we like to supplement what we do with that data with this bi-yearly survey. This also gives us insight into pieces of the industry we can't gain access to - network apps (who are usually walled gardens with their viewing data once consumers are in-app), OTT  services (same issue for most), etc. We just find it's a nice complement!

  5. Jack Wakshlag from Media Strategy, Research & Analytics, September 20, 2019 at 3:28 p.m.

    So does your device based viewing data show that online viewing is almost as much as your survey?  Why not report that along with your survey based insights instead of inferior viewing data?

  6. John Grono from GAP Research replied, September 20, 2019 at 11:33 p.m.

    Jack, I think you will find that they measure tuning/downloading and not viewing.   And those who have worked in video measurement recognice that tuning > viewing. 

  7. Jack Wakshlag from Media Strategy, Research & Analytics, September 21, 2019 at 1:28 a.m.

    Tuning, viewing. either way. The tuning data should correspond. Using survey based recall is far less reliable than tuning data. If it were not better advertisers and media companies could save millions by deploying simple recall surveys. What does TiVo tuning data say about online vs traditional tuning. Nielsen says digital is far less. I venture the TiVo data says much the same.  Let’s use survey data for what it is good at and tuning data for what it is good at. Using survey data as a substitute for tuning data is just bad research. 

  8. John Grono from GAP Research replied, September 21, 2019 at 1:47 a.m.

    Jack, first I agree that recall surveys are no substitute for data capture based measurement.

    What I was referring to was that the correspondence between tuning and viewing can be fraught.

    In a household TV viewing experience you only need one person viewing to generate a Household rating ... which is why it is not used any more. The TV system calls for regular verification of viewing. Only those verified viewers are credited to demographic ratings (e.g. People 2+).

    When you look at device streaming it is much closer to a 1:1 correspondence - how many times do you a group of people clustered around a smartphone watching something?

    But there are major issues as to what qualifies as 'tuned', especially with a 0-second threshold, or allowing off-platform swipes that trigger a server-call to count as viewing.

  9. Jack Wakshlag from Media Strategy, Research & Analytics, September 21, 2019 at 2:36 a.m.

    TiVo is not measuring swipes. My question remains. What does TiVo data say about online vs traditional viewing or tuning. I will accept either as better than survey data.   

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