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If the show fits: TV viewership continues to fragment across streaming environments

By Alex Hole | vice president, Europe

Samsung Ads

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Promoted article

March 24, 2021 | 6 min read

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2020 was a transformative year for TV viewing. With growth across every category including linear, all the video on demand types (VoDs) and gaming, the TV is cementing its role at the heart of the home and evolving into a sophisticated landscape. Once a catch all term for anything other than linear TV, ‘streaming’ now represents an incredible range of content types for the TV viewer. Understanding the streaming landscape therefore becomes an important part of understanding the TV audience.

Woman in living room watching TV

Download the free whitepaper to discover insights into viewing habits across Samsung TVs in Europe.

As options to consume content proliferate thanks to smart, connected TVs, so too do people’s habits. Samsung Ads uses ACR technology (automatic content recognition) on millions of smart TVs across Europe to gain insights into viewership patterns and which services are most popular. Its new report, ‘Decoding the on-demand TV landscape’, looks into exactly how Samsung smart TVs were used to watch content in 2020.

Download the whitepaper for free here.

Shifts in streaming

Time spent streaming on Samsung smart TVs continues to accelerate and grew by 62% in the UK in 2020, averaging two hours and 53 minutes per day, per TV. This growth has been in large part fuelled by subscription video on demand (SVoD), with viewing time growing by 43% just in this category. This is likely in great part due to the surge of SVoD subscriber numbers and new services in the market. New entrant Disney+ alone gained 3.5 million UK subscribers in 2020 – combining with Netflix and Amazon together to boast a cool 32 million UK subscribers by the end of the year. Once synonymous with ‘streaming’, these big three SVoD subscriptions services are now a part (a big part) of the overall streaming landscape.

However, there are signs the subscription market may be beginning to mature. Spotx research found that connected TV households across Europe are capping their spend on subscription services to £20 per month, which leaves them with around two or three paid services. But consumers still want new content and as their viewership interests expand and diversify, Samsung Ads is seeing other VOD categories become popular as a result.

Emerging categories

On Samsung TVs, ad-supported video on demand (AVoD) grew to account for almost a third of streaming hours (29%) in the UK in 2020, up from 23% at the start of the year. This is still a nascent category but one that shows potential for real growth. AVoD provides a way for brands to connect with a growing cohort of consumers who may spend more time watching free content in streaming environments, as they search for ever more entertainment. With broadcaster video on demand (BVoD) also accounting for 14% of consumer streaming time in the UK, it’s clear that audiences will go across multiple platforms to find great content.

For brands, this means that traditional linear campaigns can be complemented to also include audiences in the streaming space – gaining incremental reach and accounting for the totality of TV viewing habits. A media strategy that follows the data (and therefore the viewer!) means advertisers can help campaigns work harder than ever to deliver results and find audiences previously considered as hard to reach.

The VoD landscape is evolving – customers can pick and choose how they interact with it to boost their own enjoyment of their TV. It’s an incredibly exciting time for the industry, creating new opportunities to maximise the TV space and reach the viewer wherever they are. If they follow the data, advertisers can follow the audience into fascinating new territories and ensure they are taking advantage of the total TV environment.

About Samsung Ads Europe

Samsung Ads delivers advanced TV advertising at scale. Its smart TV advertising solutions are built on a unique source of TV data from more than 46m smart TVs across Europe. Samsung Ads provides the holistic view advertisers need, connecting linear, OTT, and gaming to help brands to see the total advanced TV picture.

Brands turn to our managed service and programmatic offerings to achieve incremental reach, compliment linear TV campaigns, manage frequency, find difficult-to-reach audiences and most importantly, measure outcomes.

Get in touch to find out more at adsales@samsung.com and download the whitepaper for free here.

Media Whitepapers CTV

Content by The Drum Network member:

Samsung Ads

Samsung Ads delivers Advanced TV advertising at scale. Our Smart TV advertising solutions are built on a unique source of TV data from Samsung Smart TVs. Samsung Ads provides the holistic view for advertisers, connecting linear, OTT, and gaming to help brands see the total advanced TV picture.

Find out more

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