Digital streaming now represents an estimated one-quarter of time spent watching TV, says GfK MRI in recently-released data, closing the gap with live TV, which occupies a leading 39% of all time spent using TV content.
Streaming is on par with time-shifting via DVR, which also captures an estimated one-quarter of viewing time, per the report. Interestingly, the study indicates that content viewers are spending almost one-tenth of their TV viewing time streaming through a traditional TV set.
Indeed, when consumers were separately asked about the devices on which they watch TV shows, they estimated spending 28% of their TV time streaming content to various devices:
- Online streaming through a traditional TV set accounts for 9% of time spent watching TV;
- Accessing subscription or free online platforms via a computer or mobile device accounts for 16%; and
- The remaining 3% comes from other methods for accessing content, such as portable game consoles.
In a separate study released earlier this year, Horowitz Research revealed that among adult heads of household who live in urban (population of 50k+) markets, 45% of Black TV viewers, 46% of Asian viewers and 51% of Hispanic viewers spend more than 20% of their total TV viewing time streaming video content to a computer, mobile device, or directly to a TV.
By comparison, fewer White viewers – 39% – devoted that much time to over-the-top (OTT) options.
Still, traditional live TV remains consumers’ favorite means of consuming TV viewing, per the GfK study, which also found fewer than one-third of TV viewers reporting having watched a program on a smartphone (30%) or tablet (29%) during the prior 30 days.