Q2 State of Streaming Report Details Slow Down in Connected TV Device Adoption, Streaming Ad Improvements and the Top Streaming Shows Being Discussed on Social

The streaming explosion, which hit its apex during the Covid-induced lockdowns in Q2 2020, is here to stay according to new data from Conviva, the intelligence cloud for streaming media. Conviva’s Q2 2021 State of Streaming report revealed 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.

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“As the global streaming industry grows and competition becomes even more intense, consumer expectations for a superior streaming experience – premium content, consistent performance and high-quality ad creative – will only continue to rise”

In tandem with increased viewership, the quality of streaming ads also improved significantly in Q2 2021. Only 16% of ads represented missed opportunities as they went unfilled or failed to play as expected, down from 37% the previous quarter. While total ad attempts dropped 8% from Q1 to Q2 2021, more attempts were successful, resulting in a 4% increase overall in ad impressions. 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.

“As the global streaming industry grows and competition becomes even more intense, consumer expectations for a superior streaming experience – premium content, consistent performance and high-quality ad creative – will only continue to rise,” said Keith Zubchevich, CEO, Conviva. “The publishers and advertisers that can meet or exceed these expectations will be rewarded with continued growth; however, failing to address any aspect of the viewing experience could spell disaster.”

Device Fragmentation; Roku Still Dominates

Big screens, including connected TV devices, smart TVs and gaming consoles, remained the dominant way to stream in Q2 2021, commanding 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. 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, 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%.

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Top Streaming Shows Being Discussed on Social

Streaming services are beginning to realize the immense value of social platforms as they promote their content and engage with consumers. Grey’s Anatomy, which promotes its streaming availability on Hulu, had the most cross-platform engagements on social media in Q2 2021, closely followed by Netflix’s Spanish-language drama Elite. Among new originals, Loki claimed the top social engagement spot for Disney+ at number four on Conviva’s list of the top streaming shows by social media engagement. Netflix was the streaming service most successfully driving engagements for its shows on social media with six shows noted on the list, followed by The CW with four of the top 25 shows.

The Fortune 500 and Social Videos

In addition to advertising on linear and streaming, the largest companies in the world continue to leverage video on social platforms as a way to engage with their customers. 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.

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