Nielsen: Streaming Video Up, Live TV Down in Q2

By
published

Winds of change continued to blow through the TV business in the second quarter, with live TV viewing dropping as the number of homes with broadband only and those with streaming video subscriptions rose.

According to Nielsen’s second-quarter Total Audience report, the number of homes with pay-TV subscriptions—a crucial number for the industry—is down 1.2% to 100.4 million from 101.6 million a year ago. The number of broadband only homes rose 52% to 3.3 million from 2.2 million.

Media company stocks have been diving because investors are concerned that subscription revenues are threatened by cord cutters and skinny bundles. Top executives from media companies, including Philippe Dauman of Viacom, have mostly been downplaying the threat the decline poses.

Meanwhile, the share of homes with subscription video on demand rose 18% to 45% in the second quarter of 2015 from 38% in the second quarter a year ago. The number of homes with enabled smart TVs rose to 18% from 11%.

Read more at B&C.

Jon Lafayette
Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.