Viewers moved to streaming at an accelerating rate in the fourth quarter, according to the latest Trends Report from Vizio’s Inscape unit, but consumers have stopped adding streaming apps, perhaps hoping for bundles that will help them more easily access programming.
Inscape, which gets its data from millions of opted-in smart TV sets, says streaming increased its share of viewing time in the U.S.by 5.7 percentage point to 57.3% in the fourth quarter. That left cable and satellite combined with a 33,8% share. Over three year, streaming’s share has risen from 49.4% while the combined share for cable and satellite is down from 41.5%.
A lot of that is cord-cutting. Inscape says 6.5% of cable and satellite household stopped viewing programming from those sources in the fourth quarter, up from 4% in Q4 2022.
On top of that, many households have sharply reduced their satellite and cable viewing time, but have not fully cut the cord. Inscape calls these consumers “quiet quitters.” In the fourth quarter, 15% of cable and satellite households reduced cable and satellite viewing by 75% or more. Another 11.8% of cable and satellite subscribers reduced cable and satellite viewing by 50% to 75%.
At the same time, the percentage of smart TV viewers who only stream grew to 55% in Q4. Those streaming-only viewers accounted for 63% of streaming viewing time.
Inscape noted that the rising trend of viewers who only stream impacts marketers who still prioritize linear TV for their ad campaigns.
While the amount of time streaming, the number of native smart TV apps being used has leveled off over the past nine months at about 5.5 per device.
The report notes that this is “perhaps a sign to the market that consumers have had their fill and are simply fatigued by an endless array of subscriptions and authentications to navigate.”
There have been some efforts to merge apps with Warner Bros. Discovery putting Discovery Plus content on Max and The Walt Disney Co. adding Hulu to its Disney Plus app.
While this penetration plateau might give platforms and publishers pause for now, as streaming bundles take form and signify an “everything old is new again” approach that had success for cable operators, there is still the potential for growth opportunities,Inscape said.
The last bastions of linear TV are sports and news.
In Q4 2023, nearly 80% of news viewing and 72% of sports viewing occurred via cable, satellite or OTA, Inscape said.
