Adobe study: TV Everywhere users up 157 percent in Q1…not counting Olympics

Despite problems such as deficient overall consumer awareness and understanding, usage of TV Everywhere services is surging.

Adobe TV Everywhere growth

TV Everywhere access type growth by authenticated video grew 83 percent overall between Q4 2013 and Q1 2014. (Source: Adobe)

That's the conclusion of Adobe's Video Benchmark Report, released Wednesday, that found consumption of TV Everywhere content spiked 246 percent in the first quarter of 2014. This was even without counting the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, which spurred ample TV Everywhere viewing for NBCUniversal, according to Multichannel News.

Adobe found that unique TV Everywhere users increased 157 percent in the first quarter compared to Q1 2013.

Adobe also reported a huge 539 percent spike year-over-year in Q1 viewing of TV Everywhere video on gaming consoles and over-the-top devices such as Roku and Apple TV. Smart phone and tablet usage is growing slower, the report says, at 48 percent and 16 percent, respectively, with many consumers perhaps unable to get reliable Internet access to stream video out of the home.

The new data is juxtaposed with the anecdotal experiences of TV Everywhere executives convened on a morning panel at the BroadbandTVcon conference in Santa Clara, Calif., Wednesday.

Asked how far along they were in terms of their respective goals for subscriber TV Everywhere adoption, every executive on the panel described a fairly nascent stage.

"We're still five to seven years away from where we want to be," said Niraj Desai, director of video product management for Canada's Rogers Communications. "We're that far away from having at least half of our customers engaging on [mobile and OTT] devices. We still have a lot of work to do."

For more:
- read this Adobe report
- read this Multichannel News story

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