The streaming explosion, which hit its apex during the COVID-induced lockdowns in the second quarter (Q2) is here to stay according to new data from Conviva, an intelligence cloud for streaming media. And it’s (kinda) good news for Apple TV+.

Conviva’s “Q2 2021 State of Streaming” report reveals streaming viewing time worldwide grew 13% in Q2 2021, as compared to Q2 2020. Despite a 7% decline in streaming viewing in April, North America still saw a 2% increase in streaming viewing in Q2 2021, compared to the same time last year. Other regions saw even bigger spikes in time spent streaming with Africa growing 79% and South America growing 192% year over year driven by the launch of new services.

Social video engagements and Apple TV+

According to a Conviva analysis of the Fortune 500, McDonald’s, Netflix, Nike, Apple and Facebook all claimed top social spots in Q2 2021. Netflix tallied the most social media videos, most video views and highest total cross-platform engagements, while Apple had the highest average engagements per video and highest average engagements per post for the quarter. McDonald’s collaboration with the K-pop group BTS drove millions of engagements in Q2 2021, securing it the top spot for average cross-platform engagement rate for any brand with more than fifteen thousand followers.

Streaming ads

In tandem with increased viewership, the quality of streaming ads also improved significantly in Q2 2021, according to Conviva. Only 16% of ads represented missed opportunities as they went unfilled or failed to play as expected, down from 37% the previous quarter, according to the report. While total ad attempts dropped 8% from Q1 to Q2 2021, more attempts were successful, resulting in a 4% increase overall in ad impressions, notes Conviva. What’s more, in Q2 2021, viewers had a better experience with ads as they spent 31% less time waiting for ads to play and ad duration decreased 3% to 27 seconds.

Connected devices

Big screens, including connected TV devices, smart TVs and gaming consoles, remained the dominant way to stream in Q2 2021. The commanded 73% of global viewing time, down just 1% from Q2 2020 even as consumers spent less time home bound. Mobile phones captured that 1% share, growing from 10% in Q2 2020 to 11% in Q2 2021. 

Convivia says that, while smart TVs continued their meteoric rise, up 46%, and connected TV devices saw moderate growth, up 5%, gaming consoles were the lone big screen streaming device to tally a significant decrease. They’re down 14%. Among connected TV devices, Roku maintained its dominance with 31% global share of big screen viewing time, but dropped slightly in share as smart TV-only devices including Samsung TV, LG TV, Android TV, and Vizio TV each increased 1-2%.



Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today