Conviva's State of Streaming Q4 2020

2020

Conviva’s

State of Streaming

2020, the year when streaming became ubiquitous. While many industries struggled

amid the pressures of COVID-19, streaming comparatively flourished. New streaming

services emerged from well-established television players, capturing the hearts and

minds and dollars of entertainment-starved fans. Social media rose to the occasion in

2020 as well, as organizations waded through murky waters deploying data to stake

their beachhead amidst the swells.

• Steady Viewing Growth: Time spent streaming grew 44% between Q4 2019

and Q4 2020, led by the smart TV category with a massive 157% year-over-

year increase in viewing hours.

• Big Screens Reign Supreme: TV screens captured more than 75% of all

viewing time in Q4 across connected TV devices, smart TVs, and gaming

consoles, while smaller screens waned. This trend lends itself, in part, to

increasingly house-bound and less mobile viewers amid the pandemic

outbreak in 2020.

• Growing Confidence in Streaming Ads: Ad demand rebounded from an

early 2020 pandemic-induced nadir and surged towards the end of the year

with a 31% increase in ad impressions in a single quarter and overall quality

improvements, despite lingering issues leading to 40% of ads resulting in

missed opportunities.

• Requested – Shorter Ads, Delivered – Longer Ads: The discrepancy between

what viewers wanted and what advertisers delivered continued to widen as

ad length increased 12% in a single quarter, to 31.49 seconds on average.

• Audiences Flock to YouTube: Entertainment, media, brands, and sports

accounts herded to YouTube, making it the lone social platform to tally an

increase in audience share across all four categories.

• Falling Social Engagement Rates: Cross-platform engagement rate showed

a significant drop as compared to the previous year with entertainment and

brand accounts down 26.2% and 25.8% respectively.

• Time – The Online Currency: Longer videos on social media became the

norm, with the biggest shift occurring with sports, entertainment, and media

accounts on YouTube as average video length increased by 34-60%.

• More is More for Instagram Engagement: Instagram’s carousel option,

including more than one photo or video with a post, garnered the highest

average engagements for media, sports, and entertainment and accounts

took notice, increasing the share of carousels by 6-10 percentage points.

• Tracking Pandemic Viewing Globally: As the year came to a close, multiple

regions reached new heights of 3x+ growth while North America growth

dipped to new lows, dragging down the global trend.

• International Disparity in Devices & Quality: In Q4, viewers enjoyed

improvements across all quality of experience categories in four out of six

global regions with year-over-year growth in viewing time led by South

America, up 257%, and Africa, up 224%, while North America and Asia were

both outpaced by the global average, up just 27% and 24% respectively.

Steady Viewing Growth in a Chaotic World

Despite an ever-growing industry, overall streaming consumption has continued to

rocket upwards. The time spent streaming spiked 44% between Q4 2019 and Q4 2020.

This surge was spurred by smart TV, with a staggering 157% year-over-year increase in

viewing hours. During the same time period, connected TV devices finished a distant

runner-up but still tallied a robust uptick, up 38%, while gaming consoles netted the

least progress of any device category up just 16% in total viewing hours. Growth in

viewing time on smaller screens was fueled by tablets, up 47% year over year in Q4,

followed by desktop at 27% and mobile phones at 19%.

Big Screens Reign Supreme

While mobile phones and desktops dropped in share of viewing time commanded

globally, and tablets basically held steady, big screens continued to reign supreme.

Within the TV category, connected TV devices, headlined by Roku, Amazon Fire TV,

Apple TV, and Chromecast, dominated streaming viewership with nearly 50% share of

global viewing time in Q4. Despite maintaining their majority of the market, connected

TV devices did uncharacteristically yield some market share for the second quarter in

a row, dropping to 49.1% share from 51% share the previous Q4, as the category’s 38%

growth was outpaced by overall growth at 44%.

Meanwhile, as more viewers watched within their TV’s native app rather than via an

external device, smart TVs like Samsung, LG, and Vizio gained considerably faster than

all other devices. With this exponential growth, smart TVs nearly doubled their share,

up to 16.9% from 9.4% the previous Q4. Lagging behind in the big screen category,

gaming consoles like Xbox and PlayStation enjoyed the smallest advance, up just 16%,

and declining in share to 9.1% of global viewing time from 11.3% during the same time

last Q4.

Rule the TV, Rule the World?

From a big picture perspective, Roku has long been the hegemon among streaming

devices and continued to dominate with 31% share of all TV viewing in Q4. Amazon

Fire TV also retained its place as the silver medalist in TV viewing time with 19% share.

The bronze medalist was Samsung TV, which captured more than 10% of all time

spent streaming on a TV set in Q4. Despite the November release of PlayStation 5,

PlayStation and Xbox remained neck and neck with close to 6% each, while Apple TV,

LG TV, and Chromecast rounded out the top five devices, each capturing more than

5% of all TV viewing. Android TV just missed the 5% threshold while Vizio TV tallied

nearly 3% of TV viewing time. Among those netting less than 1% share, we note Xfinity

X1 STB, Humax STB, Sky Q STB, Sagemcom, Panasonic TV, Philips TV, TiVo, Huawei STB,

and Sony TV.

Share of

Viewing Time

via the

Big Screen

Minutes per Play

TV Devices

MINUTES

Chromecast 36

33 Roku

29 All Big Screen LG TV 29

Xbox 27

Vizio TV 27

Amazon Fire TV 27

26 Samsung TV

26 PlayStation

26 Apple TV

Android TV 22

LG TV 5%

Chromecast 5%

Android TV 5%

Vizio TV 3%

Xfinity X1 1%

Humax 0.8%

Others 0.6%

SkyQ 0.5%

Sagemcom 0.2%

Philips TV 0.1%

TiVo 0.04%

Huawei 0.04%

Sony TV 0.03%

51%

49%

17%

10%

11%

12%

11%

Global Share of

Viewing Time

by Device

Connected TV Device

Smart TV

Gaming Console

Mobile Phones

Tablet

Desktop

44%

157%

19%

47%

16%

38%

27%

Growth in Viewing Time

by Device Type

Q4 2020 vs Q4 2019

31%

Roku

19%

Amazon

Fire TV

11%

Samsung

PlayStation

Apple

Xbox

Connected TV Device

Smart TV

Gaming Console

Mobile Phones

Tablet

Desktop

Grand Total

Big Screens, Big Engagement

Televisions encourage a certain commitment from viewers in the way smaller screens do not. While television

viewers may multi-task with other devices capturing their attention simultaneously, the draw to navigate away

from a program with social media, email, games, shopping, and a litany of other distractions merely a swipe away

means handheld devices do not see nearly the same engagement as big screens. Among the top ten big screen

devices, viewers watched for an average of 28.7 minutes each time they pressed play. Chromecast received the

longest watch time at 35.5 minutes per play, followed closely by Roku at 33.3 minutes per play. At the lower end of

the spectrum among big screens, Android TV captured 22.2 minutes per play with Apple TV just slightly higher at

25.7 minutes per play. In contrast, mobile phones tallied just 8.6 minutes per play, tablets 15.7 minutes per play, and

desktop 15.3 minutes per play on average in Q4 2020.

Bumpy Quality for Smaller Screens

Overall streaming quality continued to improve in Q4, with 18% higher picture quality, and marginal 1%

improvements in video start failures, time spent waiting for buffering, and video start times, however these gains

were unevenly experienced by devices. Televisions not only ruled in share, connected TV devices, smart TVs, and

gaming consoles also improved in every category for quality of the experience. Among big screens, gaming

consoles netted the most progress with 26% less buffering, 12% faster start time, 3% fewer start failures, and 3%

higher picture quality.

Alas, the same could not be said for handheld and desktop devices which faltered significantly in Q4. Mobile phones

lagged behind other devices with the worst setbacks in buffering, up 20%, and video start failures, up 19%, were the

only device to experience no improvement in picture quality, and also tallied 5% longer start times. Desktop and

tablets also both declined in quality, with increases in buffering and longer start times.

Min/Play

Video Start Failures

Video Start Time

Buffering

Bitrate

15.3

0.95%

4.71

0.65%

2.99

26.4

0.53%

4.24

0.16%

6.90

8.6

0.90%

3.60

1.14%

3.52

30.0

0.41%

4.36

0.22%

7.18

15.7

1.40%

3.87

0.50%

5.43

26.6

0.72%

4.79

0.22%

8.68

21.0

0.73%

4.23

0.36%

6.56

Desktop

Gaming

Console

Mobile

Phone

Connected

TV Devices

Tablet Smart TV Overall

14% 0% 0% 1% 5% -2% 7%

1% -3% 19% -1% -24% -8% -1%

-12% 5% -8% 4% -2% -1%

-26% 20% -4% 13% -10% -1%

3% 0% 17% 21% 18% 18%

12%

13%

Q4 | 31.49 sec

Q3 | 28.09 sec

12%

Ad Duration

Q4 2020 vs Q3 2020

Ad Attempts

34%

Ad Impressions

31%

Ad Buffering

-14%

Missed Ad

Opportunities

Q4 2020 | 40.1%

Q4 2020 | 1.82%

Bitrate

Q4 2020 | 2.91 Mbps

Ad Start Time

-2%

Q4 2020 | 0.98 sec

Growing Confidence in

Streaming Ads

As more viewers transition to streaming, ad dollars must

follow suit. After a rocky year of depressed advertising

demand in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, Q4

indicated significant improvements. Demand surged

towards the end of the year with a 34% increase in ad

attempts and 31% increase in ad impressions. While

quality issues continue to plague advertisers in terms

of meeting all available opportunities with 40% of ads

not delivered as intended for a 4% increase in missed

ad opportunities, the quality of ads that were delivered

improved. Viewers appreciated 14% less buffering, 4%

higher picture quality, and spent 2% less time waiting for

ads to start in Q4 as compared to the previous quarter.

Quality issues like long ad start times result in more

consumers growing impatient and leaving, as previous

research from Conviva has illustrated how

just 5 seconds of waiting for an ad to play

resulted in 19.24% of the audience

abandoning the content.

Requested – Shorter Ads,

Delivered – Longer Ads

The divergence between what viewers wanted and what

advertisers delivered in Q4 continued to widen when

it came to the length of ads. Ad length increased 12%

in a single quarter, to 31.49 seconds on average. While

the 30-second ad has long been the standard, viewers

had high hopes for the promise of 15-second ads on

streaming. Instead, we witness the industry moving the

opposite direction, with more ads running a full minute

or more. Advertisers ignore viewer preferences at their

own peril, as the longer the ad, the more viewers will

abandon the commercial and subsequent content.

As competition mounts and viewer attention wanes,

the goal to reduce fatigue and frequency will result

in increasingly scarce inventory with which to ensure

maximum engagement and monetization of every

consumer touchpoint.

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q4 2020

Audiences Flock to YouTube

The reliance on social media as a primary news and entertainment source for many worldwide has

triggered dramatic shifts in where brands are building and growing their respective audiences. In

analyzing four key categories, entertainment, media, brands, and sports accounts, YouTube was the

only platform rewarded with an increase in audience (as a percentage of total social audience) for

all four categories. Media and sports accounts earned the largest increases in YouTube following

with increases of 5% and 5.4% percentage points in share respectively. Meanwhile, brands and

entertainment accounts scored more modest gains at 1.3% and 1.5% percentage points in share

compared to Q4 2019.

Facebook was the most dominant platform in terms of audience, but this hegemony varied

across categories. Sports followers were the most evenly split among all social networks, charting

similarly sized audiences on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook with 25-28% share on each platform.

Entertainment and brands ensnared the largest percentage of their followers on Facebook ranging

from 42% and 54% share, while media accounts leveraged Twitter for 40% of their audience.

Social Trends

As the endless 2020 drew to a merciful close, social media managers everywhere rejoiced. An

eventful year ended after a chaotic United States election cycle and an exhausted public. 2020

was the catalyst for numerous transformations in social media consumption as shown in Conviva’s

previous State of Streaming reports, where it was found that YouTube viewing on connected TVs

skyrocketed in Q2 and national and local news consumption reached new heights as the pandemic

lingered, social justice protests swept the nation, and the election kicked in to high gear. Comparing

Q4 2020 to Q4 2019, numerous changes persisted that will set the stage for an active 2021.

Entertainment

Media

Sports

Brands

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

2020

2019

Q4 2020 vs Q4 2019

Share of Social

Audience

Time – The Online Currency

Today’s main online currency is time. And publishers are always pursuing additional

ways to transact and capture more time. Now more than ever, social publishers

are finding themselves competing with streaming networks, online gaming, and

traditional TV for this time. Fueled by the pandemic, social publishers are producing

more longer form and series-based content for social media in an effort to retain

online viewership and supplement other potential streaming efforts.

2020 ushered in a sea change in drastically more longer form entertainment on

Facebook and YouTube for many accounts compared to 2019. Nearly all categories

posted longer videos on average than the previous year, with the exception of

media accounts on Facebook and brand accounts on YouTube. The largest shift

happened with sports, entertainment, and media accounts on YouTube where their

average video length increased by 60%, 59%, and 34% respectively. Media accounts,

conversely, adapted to the rapid pace of news by posting shorter videos on Facebook

but longer form videos on YouTube for future viewing. While brands decreased video

length on YouTube, the category lengthened videos on Facebook by the largest

margin at 34%.

Changing Video Length

Q4 2020 vs Q4 2019

SPORTS

MEDIA

ENTERTAINMENT

BRANDS

60%

10%

-19%

-6%

34%

59%

19%

34%

YouTube Facebook

Falling Social Engagement Rates

If your social media accounts performed below average in Q4 2020, you were not

alone. A review of cross-platform engagement rate for all categories revealed that

there was a considerable dip in engagement rate for the quarter as compared to

the previous year. Entertainment and brand accounts suffered the largest decreases,

down 26.2% and 25.8% while media and sports accounts were slightly less affected but

were still impacted by declines of 21.7% and 17.5% respectively year over year.

Several factors may ultimately have contributed to the lack of engagement, but likely

culprits include the oversaturation of months-long grim pandemic news, United States

election coverage, and general fatigue caused by one of the more eventful years in

human history. Additionally, social networks were bombarded by political ad spend

that would have usually been occupied by more typical brand and entertainment

spending. Many accounts chose to remain on the sidelines rather than join the fray

where they would be forced to compete with inflated ad prices induced by high

election spending.

Falling Engagement Rate

Cross-Platform Change | Q4 2020 vs Q4 2019

SPORTS MEDIA

ENTERTAINMENT BRANDS

-17.5%

-26.2% -25.8%

-21.7%

SPORTS ENTERTAINMENTMEDIA BRANDS

Average Engagements on Instagram by Post Type

Q4 2020

CarouselSingle ImageSingle Video

Share of Engagements on Instagram by Post Type

Q4 2020 vs Q4 2019

2020

2019

2020

2019

2020

2019

2020

2019

20000

10000

More is More for Instagram Engagement

One prominent social trend in 2020 was the rise in publishers on Instagram that

leveraged the carousel feature to include more than one photo or video with a post.

Media and sports accounts moving to this format resulted in a 10% climb in their share

of posts utilizing the carousel function while entertainment netted 6% additional share.

And with good reason, according to an analysis of average engagements per content

type, as carousel posts attracted the highest average engagements for these three

categories. Interestingly, brand accounts, the only category to decrease their use of

carousel posts year over year, uploaded images as the highest performing content

type on Instagram rather than carousels. Posts with a single video on Instagram

accounted for the lowest average engagements for all post types in all categories.

Video posts were also utilized less by all categories when comparing Q4 2019 to

Q4 2020.

The end of 2020 was a crowded and chaotic time to be online but one trend remained

infallible: applying analytics to guide your social strategy was a winning tactic. There

is no substitute for hard data when it comes to the complex uncertainty of today’s

digital media landscape. Social publishers who relied heavily on analytics solutions to

guide them through 2020 will gain more competitive advantages for it in 2021.

Brands – Consumer brands, services, and products

Entertainment – Television shows, channels, streaming or cable

networks, online entertainment content hubs

Media – Publishers in the business of producing content for

informational purposes across any content category

Sports – Professional sports teams and leagues, minor league or

amateur sports teams and leagues, college sports teams, sports

venues, and accounts associated with a professional sports

team like charitable organizations of professional teams

Definition of

Accounts

SPORTS ENTERTAINMENTMEDIA BRANDS

Average Engagements on Instagram by Post Type

Q4 2020

CarouselSingle ImageSingle Video

Share of Engagements on Instagram by Post Type

Q4 2020 vs Q4 2019

2020

2019

2020

2019

2020

2019

2020

2019

20000

10000

Tracking Pandemic Viewing

2020 was a year marked by volatility and the streaming industry was not exempted. In

Q4 multiple regions reached new heights while growth in North America reached new

lows, dragging down the global trend. As the year came to a close, South America

and Africa led the world in growth of viewing time with 3x+ growth in November and

December. Europe and Asia ended the year trending up as well, although the regions

did not pass their pinnacles from earlier in the year. North America was the only

region where growth trended down over the course of Q4, with December the worst

month of 2020 for growth in the region, up only 19% from the previous December.

The global transition to streaming is far from complete as less saturated

markets tally astronomical growth and established regions continue steady

increases in viewing time.

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

53%

23%

17%

55%

56%

59%

56%

57%

55%

80%

61%

42%

19%

96%

60%

89%

81%

45%

12%

174%

73%

38%

58%

22%

-1%

107%

55%

17%

49%

24%

-5%

122%

43%

58%

59%

46%

16%

128%

53%

84%

50%

199%

11%

108%

43%

120%

38%

254%

28%

114%

23%

256%

56%

55%

17%

88%

54%

87%

40%

223%

34%

143%

19%

301%

45%

17%

-12%

79%

46%

94%

Global

Africa

Asia

Europe

N. America

S. America

Growth in Viewing Time

2019 vs 2020

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

53%

23%

17%

55%

56%

59%

56%

57%

55%

80%

61%

42%

19%

96%

60%

89%

81%

45%

12%

174%

73%

38%

58%

22%

-1%

107%

55%

17%

49%

24%

-5%

122%

43%

58%

59%

46%

16%

128%

53%

84%

50%

199%

11%

108%

43%

120%

38%

254%

28%

114%

23%

256%

56%

55%

17%

88%

54%

87%

40%

223%

34%

143%

19%

301%

45%

17%

-12%

79%

46%

94%

Global

Africa

Asia

Europe

N. America

S. America

Global Goals

With improvements in awareness and technology, most of the world has continued

the trend of quality improvement which results in increased consumer confidence,

further adoption of streaming, and longer viewing times on streaming platforms. In

Q4, viewers enjoyed improvements across all quality of experience categories in four

out of six global regions.

Africa made large inroads in picture quality, leading all regions in improvement,

up 157% year over year. Africa also moved in the right direction with the most

improvement in buffering, down 51%, but the region still lagged significantly behind

other locales at 2.13% buffering rate in Q4. Despite these significant changes, the

region is plagued by video start failures which increased by 49% and are the

highest of any geo at 4.88%. South America enjoyed the highest margin of quality

improvement in video start failures, down 47% year over year, in addition to 48%

improvement in buffering, 8% higher picture quality, and 5% shorter start times.

While Europe didn’t take the top spot in progress for any single metric as compared

to the large improvements by more nascent streaming regions, European viewers still

enjoyed quite significant strides. The region enjoyed 69% higher picture quality, 26%

fewer start failures, 25% less buffering, and 1% faster start times. Also improving across

the board, Oceania was middle of the road in quality improvements, with 29% fewer

start failures, 22% less buffering, 19% higher picture quality, and 4% faster start times.

North America tallied modest improvements with picture quality and start failures

both improved 15%, in addition to 8% less buffering and 1% faster start times.

Asia was the lone region to decline in quality across multiple metrics, most

significantly with 43% worse buffering. Start times also lengthened, up 5%, and 4%

more videos failed in Q4 2020 as compared to Q4 2019.

Minutes / Play Video Start Failures Video Start Time Buffering Bitrate

Africa

Asia

Europe

N. America

Oceania

S. America

Real Time

Quality by Region

Q4 2020 vs Q4 2019

MetricsFiltersGlobal Region

9.2

10.4

23.4

22.3

19.7

19.1

7.15

2.67

3.74

4.44

4.79

6.30

2.13

1.34

0.34

0.28

0.42

0.7

6.27

2.11

6.59

6.83

8.27

6.15

% sec

sec

4.88

1.40

0.44

Mbps

49%

0.78

-26%

YoY YoY YoY YoY YoY

-15%

-29%

-47%

133%

-12%

11%

10%

53%

-1%

-4%

-5%

-51%

43%

-25%

-8%

-22%

-48%

157%

24%

69%

15%

19%

1.34

2.53

257%

27%

69%

24%

122%

224%

44%

Africa

N. America

Asia

Global

Europe

Oceania

S. America

Africa

N. America

Asia

Europe

Oceania

S. America

Global

Share of

Viewing Time

by Device

Q4 2020

Connected TV Device

Smart TV

Gaming Console

Mobile Phones

Tablet

Desktop

45%49%

17%

10%

33%

31%

18%

37%

21%

17%

57%

16%

10%

23%

14%

11%

13%

22%

10%

11%

15%

37%

47%

17%

24%

Q4 2020 vs Q4 2019

Growth in Viewing Time by Region

International Disparity in Devices

Streaming again posted dramatic global gains in many regions with overall time

spent streaming up 44% in Q4 2020 as compared to the previous Q4. By region, growth

was led by South America which tallied exceptional year-over-year growth of 257%,

and Africa, up 224%. Europe also posted impressive gains to cap off a booming year

in the region as the time spent streaming more than doubled, up 122% in Q4. North

America and Asia were both outpaced by the global average, up just 27% and 24%

respectively.

By device, television’s dominance is obvious on a global scale, as the big screen

captured more than 75% of all viewing hours. But how viewers choose to connect their

TVs varies by region. Connected TV devices were the top choice for viewers in North

America at 57%, Africa at 45%, Europe at 33%, and Oceania at 31% share of viewing

time in Q4. In South America, streamers chose to watch natively through their smart

TVs which captured 37% share of viewing in the region. Asia was the only region where

viewers were far more likely to forgo the big screen, as desktop dominated in watch

time at 47% share of time spent in Q4.

Closing Thoughts

While many wish 2020 to be a year soon forgotten, it will likely be remembered a

pivotal year for streaming. The industry delivered with flourishing new services,

astronomical peaks of growth, blockbusters released direct to streaming, and the

rising profile of social media platforms. But for the industry to thrive, these positive

trends must continue while we leave behind the anxiety-inducing news cycle that

negatively impacted advertising and social media behaviors, the streaming burnout

as consumers look for activities outside the home in a post-pandemic world, and

the dearth of ad dollars coupled with persistent quality issues that resulted in 40% of

streaming ads as missed opportunities.

Methodology

Data for Conviva’s State of Streaming report was primarily collected from Conviva’s

proprietary sensor technology currently embedded in 3.3 billion streaming video

applications, measuring in excess of 500 million unique viewers watching 180 billion

streams per year with 1.8 trillion real-time transactions per day across more than

180 countries. Year-over-year comparisons were normalized at the customer level

for accurate representations of industry growth. The social data consists of data from

over 1200 accounts, over 3 million posts, 778 thousand videos, 84 billion video views,

and over 10 billion engagements across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

About Conviva

Conviva is the intelligence cloud for streaming media. Our cloud platform

provides AI-powered insights, software, services, and an extensive ecosystem

of partners to support mission critical aspects of your streaming business

from audience engagement and monetization to quality of experience and

churn prevention. We help digital businesses of all sizes around the world

stream their best - including CBS, CCTV, DAZN, Disney+, Hulu, Sky, Sling TV, TED,

Univision, and WarnerMedia - with solutions spanning quality of experience,

advertising, content, and social media. With a global footprint of more than

500 million unique viewers watching 180 billion streams per year across

3.3 billion applications streaming on devices, Conviva delivers amazing

streaming experiences with unmatched scale across every stream, every

screen, every second.

Any Questions?

Visit www.conviva.com or contact Conviva at [email protected].

2020

Conviva’s

State of

Streaming