USA: households consume 43.5 hours of video per week across all viewing devices

At NAB today, the consulting firm Parks Associates released new research, "The Viewer Journey: Navigating Streaming Options", revealing US Internet households now consume 43.5 hours of video per week on average across all viewing devices, an increase of more than six hours from 37.2 hours in 2020. Additionally, 61% of households watch paid streaming services on a TV set, consuming an average of 7.5 hours per week of content from these services.

The studio examines how viewers navigate to video content across broadcast, traditional pay TV, and streaming video models, including SVOD, AVOD/FAST, TVOD, and vMVPD (streaming TV) services. The research found that 50% of people who consume video on a viewing device (TV, computer, tablet, or phone) watch a free, ad-supported service (FAST) or ad-based video on-demand service (AVOD) at least once a week.

Sarah Lee, Research Analyst, Parks Associates  provided greater precision about video consumption in households: “Video-viewing households report watching on average more than 21 hours per week on a TV, accounting for half of their viewing hours. Video consumption on a cell phone continues to rise—excluding social video sources, US internet households spend 6.5 hours per week watching video a smartphone and 3.9 hours on a tablet. TVs are still the main video-viewing device, but platform usage continues to diversify," explained.

The Viewer Journey reports that paid streaming services are the most popular content type consumed across TV, mobile, computers, and tablets, but households watch several different types of services across their devices over the week. Seventy-eight percent of households report watching an SVOD service weekly, followed by 67% of households who watch user-generated content such as that from YouTube.

Lee also explained that there is balance when diving into the offer:“The flexibility and convenience that on-demand services offer is highly appealing to viewers, but many households enjoy a balance between finding something to watch and watching what they find. Given the popularity of FAST and user-generated content, consumers may soon decide they do not need to subscribe to as many services as they do now," added.