Traditional TV viewing has dropped by more than 12% year on year in the US in the face of competition from streaming services such as Netflix, according to a study.
Nomura analyst Anthony DiClemente and Benjamin Black, say the figures showed “one of the worst declines we have seen since we launched coverage of these companies.
“Why the steep declines? Naturally, [subscription video on demand] services, such as Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, and Hulu, continue to siphon viewers away from linear TV. Of course, over time, time-shifted viewership could offset these declines, including VOD usage, dot-com, and in-app viewership.” The report is based on statistics from market research firm Nielsen.
In Britain, Ofcom figures released in 2014 show a similar year-on-year decline, although smaller: the average viewer watched 3 hours 52 minutes of TV per day in 2013, down by 9 minutes or 4% year on year.
Revenue for online TV services increased by 41% in the same period, with subscription revenue specifically rising even quicker, “possibly indicating that online streaming services are gaining traction in the UK market,” according to the regulator.
Figures released by Sky show a record increase in its own on-demand platform, with the company announcing “almost 2 billion download and streaming requests made by its customers during 2014”, an increase of nearly 50% on the year before.
In January, Netflix reported revenues of $1.48bn in the final quarter of 2014, and 33.4 million US subscribers.
