Hulu with Live TV was the top live streaming TV service during the fourth quarter, according to TiVo’s newest Video Trends Report.
The survey, which interviewed 6,145 people in the U.S. and Canada aged 18 and older, reported that 8% of respondents said they had a monthly subscription to Hulu with Live TV, up from 6.7% in 2018. YouTube TV wasn’t far behind with 7.1%, but the service was down from the 12% of respondents who told TiVo they had a monthly subscription in 2018. AT&T TV Now had 4.2%, Sling TV had 3.7%, PlayStation Vue (which is shutting down on January 30) had 2.8% and Philo had 2.1%. TiVo’s research didn’t mention fuboTV or Vidgo, two other U.S. virtual MVPDs.
TiVo’s report also tracked some rising popularity among free, ad-supported streaming services while noting that entrenched incumbents in the space were still dominating the market. According to the survey, 73.1% of respondents said they use YouTube and 62.3% said they use Facebook for free video, putting those two services firmly in the one and two spots and substantially of how many respondents said they used them in 2018.
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Free video from networks (through websites and apps) shot up from 13.4% in 2018 to 45.3% in the fourth quarter. Crackle (+2.4%), Tubi (+3.8 %), Vevo (+5.4%) and Twitch (+3.3%) also gained viewers, while services like the Roku Channel and Xumo stayed mostly flat from the second quarter to the fourth quarter of 2019.
TiVo’s report also dug into the types of devices consumers are using to access streaming video, and found several manufacturers and categories growing, but likely at the expense of others. According to the report, 30.7% of respondents (up 3.5% year over year) said smart TVs are their top choice for streaming. Roku streaming devices came in at 20.7% (up 9.8% year over year) and Amazon Fire TV Stick came in a 18.9% (up 3.1% year over year). But gaming consoles fell 0.6% to 18.8%, Google Chromecast fell 2.6% to 9.9% and Apple TV fell 4.9% to 8.5%.