Home-based Streaming Climbs, Multiple Device Ownership Grows
By Wayne Friedman
While the number of home-based streaming devices continues its steady growth, a sizable percentage of the marketplace does not have access.
As of fourth-quarter 2017, Nielsen says 30 percent of the marketplace does not have a smart TV, an internet-connected device (such as Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV Stick) or a videogame console.
Results improved slightly from the year before, when 36 percent did not have a home-based streaming device. (The survey doesn't include smartphones or tablets.)
The report says multiple devices are also climbing. Thirty-four percent of all persons two years and older had at least one of these devices, while 27 percent had two and 9 percent had three.
The best results for ownership of streaming devices came from millennials — 37 percent had one, 33 percent had two and 12 percent had three, with 18 percent having none. The oldest group of U.S. consumers, the "Greatest Generation," had the least — 26 percent had one device, and 63 percent did not have any.
In 2018, over-the-air-only TV homes — those using a digital antenna — have grown by one-third in four years to 13.8 percent of U.S. homes, up from 10.3 percent. Broadband-only homes have more than tripled — from 1.7 percent in March 2014.
Nielsen say 22 percent of all people in the U.S. access their content through broadband-only, over-the-air, of virtual multichannel video program distributors (vMVPDs). Penetration is the highest among the younger groups — 26 percent for generation Z (gen Z) (2-21 year olds) and 32 percent for millennials (22- to 38-year-olds).
Source
"Home-based Streaming Climbs, Multiple Device Ownership Grows." MediaPost, 6/14/18.