Cable operators deliver 54% of all VOD viewing, VAB report says

Despite the rise of SVOD platforms like Netflix, 54 percent of all VOD consumption in the U.S. still comes from cable services, according to the Video Advertising Bureau. 

Chewing through data from Nielsen, comScore, Rentrak and other research companies, the group’s latest Video on Demand Report (PDF) said online services accounted for about 35 percent of all on-demand viewership, while satellite operators drew about 30 percent of consumption. “Other” platforms delivered 2 percent. (The fact that survey respondents could select multiple service providers explains why the total share is listed at 121 percent, VAB noted.)

The cable-backed group (formerly known as the “Cable Advertising Bureau”) said that more than 73 million people in the U.S. access on-demand libraries from MVPDs. And engagement of this content tends to be higher, VAB noted.

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Pay-TV VOD viewers, on average, watched 50 percent more of a 30-minute series than they did with live TV, VAB said, and 33 percent more than a DVR-shifted show. 

“MVPDs’ VOD viewers are committed to the content,” said Evelyn Skurkovich, VP of research and insights at the VAB. “They are passionate about catching up with these programs and are willing to watch with ads that can’t be skipped.”

The group said the VOD libraries of pay-TV operators offer twice as many titles as Amazon and three times as many as Hulu and Netflix, with operators spending more than $50 billion on programming a year collectively.