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Prepare to hear a lot about TV Everywhere at next week’s Cable Show. Consumer demand has driven the cable industry to change their approach and adopt TV Everywhere services that allow for personalized viewing experiences across multi-devices. After being coined four years ago by Comcast and Time Warner, TVE is finally penetrating the marketplace where all major pay-TV operators and many media brands — HBO, NBC, Starz, Showtime and Epix– have implemented some form of the TVE service, either with live linear streaming or on demand services.
But, slow adoption has been an issue. So much so that CTAM has started a campaign to bring about more awareness around TV Everywhere to consumers. They plan to roll out tactics to increase adoption and build the TVE category.
One major issue is that over half (52.4%) of pay-TV subscribers do not know that their operator provides a TVE app for their smartphone or iPad, and only 21.6% have actually downloaded it to their device, according to a Digitalsmiths report.
Another reason that TVE hasn’t picked up massive adoption is because of a slight decline in pay-TV subscribers perhaps due to cord-cutting. SNL Kagan reports that the US pay-TV industry recorded its first-ever full-year subscriber decline in 2013, dropping to approximately 100 million. However, debates about the effects of cord cutting continue to rage, with ABI’s research showing that the worldwide pay-TV market reached 903.3 million subscribers in 2013 and is expected to grow globally to 1.1 billion subscribers by 2019.
With the surge in multi-device use, growth in new content and efforts to build awareness underway, TVE adoption is poised to explode. Conviva’s 2014 VXR data shows that the number of households on concurrent streaming devices increased by 28% year over year, highlighting the fact that more consumers are watching exactly what they want during primetime without relying solely on traditional TV broadcasts. Family viewing is a thing of the past. The trend for solo viewing, across multi-devices during primetime, will only continue to grow as use of mobile devices increases and more consumers become aware of TVE. For more proof, just watch these hilarious HBO GOcommercials that really capture the awkward moments of family TV viewing.
Meanwhile, the cable world is continuing to push into the Internet TV market with Time Warner partnering with Fanhattan to sell their $99 boxes to subscribers. It will offer both live TV and VOD, plus streaming video from services including Redbox Instant, Target Ticket, Crackle and Rhapsody. The addition of cable TV streams brings a lot of content that other set-top boxes don’t have. In addition, the pending merger between Comcast and Time Warner should, according to Comcast execs, result in accelerated deployment of more innovative products and services for their consumers and that surely will include new technology advances around TV Everywhere.
With an amplified focus, more available content and seamless authentications, TVE is bound to continue to flourish. We’d love to talk with you about the changes we see in the cable TV industry and how we can help prepare you to deliver a high-quality streaming service despite the unpredictability of the Internet.
If you’re at The Cable Show next week, be sure to email us. We’ll be hosting a suite at the JW Marriot and would love to see you. Also, be sure to check out our CEO’s session on Wednesday on how to use predictive modeling and big data to ensure QoE for your Internet TV service.
Email diana@conviva.com to schedule your meeting at The Cable Show.
Diana Paschal
Digital Marketing team
