Streaming popularity has grown exponentially over the recent years with the North American market all but completely saturated by now. Global streaming popularity rose 21% in Q3 2021, with just 2% of that coming from North America according to Conviva‘s latest State of Streaming Report. The growth was mainly charged by a 273% jump in Africa.
Streaming quality also continues to improve over time. Buffering, what used to be a major pain in the early days of streaming is all but a memory viewers nearly forgot about with buffering delays under 1% now. Picture quality has also continued to improve year over year.
As for how viewers like to stream their video, big screens take the win accounting for 73% of all streaming viewing time worldwide whether on connected TV devices, smart TVs or gaming consoles. Roku wins the popularity contest in terms of streaming devices with 31.1% share, followed by Amazon Fire TV with 16.8% share.
“Streaming viewing has grown 266% over the past three years, completely transforming the entertainment, publishing and advertising industries,” said Keith Zubchevich, CEO, Conviva. “Topics like quality of experience, advertising measurement and social engagement are now top of mind and the publishers that effectively leverage opportunities to improve in these areas will not only lead the industry in subscribers and viewer satisfaction, but also revenue.”