Streaming Share of Total TV Viewing Has Leveled Off

• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

After growing substantially over the last three years, the share of time spent streaming has leveled off for U.S. households -- at 57% in the first quarter of this year, according to Inscape. 

In the previous fourth quarter 2023 period it was 58%, according to the TV-video smart TV data company. By way of comparison, streaming share was 45% in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Notably traditional cable/satellite/telco share was essentially flat as well -- at 33%, down one percentage point from the fourth quarter 2023. 

TV viewing time accessed by gaming consoles were at 6% in the first quarter of this year-- virtually the same level versus the same first quarter period a year ago. Over the air TV access was at 3%.

Though overall smart TV viewing share is flat, the percentage of viewing-only streamed content (versus linear TV content) is rising: 58% of the total smart TV time viewing goes to streamed programming, up three percentage points from the previous quarter.

Analyzing a key important piece of linear TV -- live programming (especially sports and news) -- research shows that after periods of rising viewing, there were flattening results for smart TVs, a 24.4% share, down from 25.8% the previous quarter.

Since the second quarter 2022 live, linear TV viewing has climbed from 15.2% a share.

Inscape results were based on linear and streaming TV data from over 23 million opt-in households via Vizio smart TV and other device