Comscore Aug. 29 reported a 21% increase in the number of hours streamed by households with connected televisions, rising almost 2 billion hours year-over-year to 11.5 billion through May from 9.6 billion hours in prior-year period. The report attributed the increase to the growing use of ad-supported streaming platforms.
CTV households streaming ad-supported streaming services reached 83.7 million, a 17% increase (from 2021-2023), while households streaming non-ad-supported services reached 81.1 million, a 9% increase.
Notably, Comscore found that 75% of new streaming consumption was generated by streaming services beyond the top six apps — Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, Hulu, Max and Disney+ — as free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services such as Pluto TV, Tubi, and The Roku Channel, as well as on-demand VOD programming consumption accelerates.
“While the top U.S. streaming services are keeping up with the demand for subscriptions, new growth can be observed in FAST streaming platforms, which are increasingly consolidating their position in the household mix,” James Muldrow, VP of product management, said in a statement.
According to the analysis, the U.S. streaming audience size also continues to grow, up to 73% from 69% in 2022.
Muldrow said cable/satellite subscribers remain some of the most engaged users in the streaming landscape. With three cable/satellite providers in the Top 10 ranking of video services based on hours watched per household.
“These findings highlight the success of these providers in offering advertisers consistently engaged streaming audiences,” he said.
The reports also found that the hours watched on connected devices have risen 20% year-over-year with 81% of Wi-Fi households now streaming on connected televisions.
Hispanic households consume nearly twice as many hours of FAST content, increasing 81% year-on-year. As of May 2023, 60% of CTV households are now cordless, compared to just 37% in May 2019. Total households that stream content via Smart TVs increased 23% from May 2021, followed by gaming consoles at 18%.
