Advertisers still struggling with streaming quality

New Streaming Data Shows Ads Continue to Falter, Roku has Radically Improved Performance and Overall Streaming Viewing Climbs

Conviva, the leader in global streaming media intelligence, released its quarterly State of Streaming report for Q4 2019 today, revealing streaming viewing continues to climb – up 58% year over year – as consumers are motivated by new streaming services like Disney+ and Apple TV+ and the convenience of on demand versus live streaming (66% of global streaming viewing is now on demand).

Advertisers Still Struggling with Streaming Quality

Conviva analyzed more than 11 billion ad attempts in Q4 2019 and found that while streaming ads are slowly improving in quality, the length of time a viewer must wait for the ad to start nearly doubled, going from 1.14 to 2.27 seconds over the span of a single quarter. As a result, viewers are more likely than ever to exit an ad, with exits before an ad starts surging 49%. Conviva found ad buffering also remains an issue with a 48% increase quarter over quarter.

In slightly more positive findings, 36.5% of streaming ad attempts failed to play as intended in Q4 2019, down from 39.6% last quarter. Ad start failures also improved, going from 35.7% in Q3 to 30.8% in Q4. Advertisers are also shortening their ads, with average time down from 38 seconds in Q3 to 26.6 seconds in Q4.

“From recent entrants like Disney+ to soon-to-be-launched services like NBC’s Peacock and HBO Max, we’ve barely begun to scratch the surface of streaming’s impact not only on consumer behavior, but also on the multi-billion dollar advertising and entertainment industries,” said Bill Demas, CEO, Conviva. “As with any disruptive technology, growing pains are inevitable. The companies that win the streaming wars will be those able to offer viewers a fast, clear, reliable experience regardless of where in the world they live, or what device they use.”

Roku Radically Improves Performance; Continues to Lead Device Category

Roku, a company whose market share remained steady in Q4 2019 with 43% of all connected TV viewing time, markedly improved performance in the past year, providing viewers with a more consistent and high-quality viewing experience.

In Q4 2019 Roku (as compared to Q4 2018):

• Reduced video start failures by 56%
• Reduced video start times by 12%
• Reduced buffering by 34%
• Improved bitrate/picture quality by 25%

Fire TV, the second-largest player in the device category with 18% of the connected TV market, reduced video start failures by 15% and buffering by 9%. However, Fire TV’s video start times increased 15% as compared with Q4 2018. Apple TV, which holds 9% of the connected TV market, still leads with the fastest start time, but saw increases in both video start times and video start failures, up by 25% and 19% respectively.

Streaming Grows Internationally; Asia Ripe for More Streaming Adoption

Streaming is growing rapidly not just in the United States, but also around the world. Streaming viewing is up 63% in the Americas year over year and 65% in Europe. Streaming growth in Asia is slower, showing just a 10% increase year over year. However, it’s worth noting the connected TV market in Asia only accounts for 2% in viewing hours, but netted 243% growth year over year, as compared to growth on mobile or PC devices in Asia, which inched up just 11% and 6% respectively.

The Americas experienced the lowest rate of video start failures at .51%, the lowest rate of buffering at .31% and the best bitrate (picture quality) at 5.94 Mbps. Asia claims the world’s fastest video start time at 2.58 seconds while Europe lags behind in many quality categories, including the highest percentage of video start failures at 1.63%.

Android Dominates Mobile Streaming Viewing

Nearly a quarter, 24%, of all streaming time is spent on a mobile device, and Google’s Android phones represent the majority with a 60% share of the mobile devices used. Google is followed by two Apple products—the iPhone at 26% and iPad at 14% share. This represents a 47% increase year over year for Android phones and an 84% increase for the iPhone.

Social Video Core to News and Sports Organizations

Compared to Q4 2018, in Q4 2019 news organizations created 23% more videos on average across all social platforms as they leverage video on social platforms to boost audience engagement. Facebook in particular saw a sharp increase in live video content from news organizations as they posted 28% more live videos on average. Facebook also saw a 125% increase of average views per news video compared from Q4 2018 to Q4 2019. Overall, Facebook accounted for nearly 60% of all video views by major news organizations on social media platforms in 2019.

Professional sports teams also enjoyed a banner year on social with a game plan of more quality over quantity, increasing their average cross-platform views per video by 33% and engagements per video by 40% despite posting 9% less video content in Q4 2019 as compared to Q4 2018. Sports organizations saw the largest increase of average engagements per video (Q4 2018 vs. Q4 2019), growing on Instagram by 50% and YouTube by 47%. Instagram drove the most views for professional sports teams with 46% of their total views during 2019.

Methodology

Data for Conviva’s State of Streaming report was primarily collected from Conviva’s proprietary sensor technology currently embedded in three billion streaming video applications, measuring in excess of a 500 million unique viewers watching 150 billion streams per year with 1.5 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 advertising data included in the report is based on an analysis of nearly 11 billion ad attempts in Q4. The social media data included in the report is based on an analysis of more than 6.5 million social posts and 250 billion social video views across Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram.