Despite hurdles that keep some pay-TV subs from setting up TV Everywhere accounts, overall authenticated video usage has surged 467% over a 24-month period, according to Adobe’s latest report on U.S. digital video trends.
While major sporting events continue to serve as the primary TVE catalyst (three times as many TVE viewers watch sports than watch movies), viewership increases are being seen across multiple forms of content, covering areas such as broadcast and episodic cable, according to Adobe’s report, which based its 2013-2014 findings on 191 billion total online video starts, 2.67 billion TVE authentications, and 250-plus sites and apps in the U.S. and Canada that served as TVE “access points.”
The analysis found that 12.5% of pay-TV subs were actively viewing TVE content in the fourth quarter of 2014, up from just 4.4% in the first quarter of 2013.
Active viewership of 11.6% in 2014 suggests that TVE is “only a few quarters away from” shifting from a platform for “early adopters” to one that is used by the “early majority,” as well, Adobe said.
While convincing users to set up TVE accounts “is a bit of a hurdle,” those who hop over it tend to return on a frequent basis, as consumers logged 2.1 billion authenticated videos in 2014, up 266% year-on-year. On average, 13 million viewers logged in at least once per quarter during 2014 to watch TVE content, Adobe said.
Among devices, the iPad remains the most popular for TVE streaming, with a 29% share of authenticated video starts in Q4 2014, followed by the iPhone (18%), Android devices (16%), PCs (12%), Macs (8%), Roku (7%), Apple TV (5%), gaming consoles (2%), and iPods (1%).
Adobe also set forth some predictions, holding that the proliferation of new devices and faster connections will drive mobile to overtake desktop video viewing by the fourth quarter of 2016.
Adobe also expects TVE active viewership to reach 18% by the end of 2015, driven by auto-authentication, social logins, and marketing campaigns from MVPDs.
Additionally, Adobe sees the category of gaming consoles and OTT devices to achieve a 20% share of TVE in 2015, as consumers continue to gravitate usage to products such as the Google Chromecast, Roku devices, Apple TV boxes and gaming consoles.
