The number of U.S. households that stream over-the-top video using a subscription video on demand service (SVOD) has risen to 57 percent, according to a new report from Leichtman Research Group. Furthermore, 48 percent of U.S. adults stream either Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Hulu or Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) on a monthly basis.
While millennials aged 18-24 make up the largest group of SVOD streamers at 77 percent, the overall percentage of adults using SVOD is still pretty impressive at 38 percent. Compare that to six years ago in 2010, when Netflix's streaming service was still a relatively new phenomenon and just 8 percent of adults in the United States subscribed to an online video service.
On-demand services in general have also caught on – something analysts fretted about in past years, particularly with TV Everywhere, which had a slow start among cable operators. "In 2005, 25 percent of cable subscribers had ever used VOD, 8 percent of all households had a DVR, and about 4 percent of households subscribed to Netflix's DVD-by-mail movie delivery service. These services have significantly evolved over the past decade," said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG. "Today, over 80 percent of households get at least one of these services, and in recent years Netflix and other streaming SVOD offerings have expanded the use and popularity of on-Demand TV."
LRG surveyed 1,214 adults aged 18 and older across the U.S. in December as part of its fourteenth annual study of on-demand usage, citing a statistical margin of error of about 2.8 percent.
Last year, LRG noted that among cord cutters, 48 percent had a subscription to Netflix, and 53 percent streamed it every day. Among consumers with pay-TV subscriptions, 36 percent also subscribed to Netflix and 32 percent watched it every day.
Note that the frequency of Netflix use doesn't seem to be driving pay-TV subscribers to take the radical step of cutting the cord. FierceCable found that cable and satellite operators actually added subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2015. Furthermore, LRG said that among its survey respondents, 83 percent stream Netflix on a TV set.
For more:
- see this Advanced Television article
- see this press release
Related articles:
Cord cutting overblown? 6 leading pay-TV operators add 37K video subs in 2015
Daily Netflix viewing climbs to 36% of subs in 2014, report says
LRG: 81 percent of U.S. households can access a broadband connection