TiVo+, the company’s ad-supported streaming service, has seen a significant uptick in time watched as most Americans stay home to avoid the coronavirus.
The company said TiVo+ viewership is up 41% in total hours spent since last week. The company also said that people spent “A LOT of time" watching the The Pet Collective and that Tastemade remains in the top 10 channels list alongside Bon Appetit, Newsy, USA Today, Wired and FilmRise Free Movies.
Free, ad-supported streaming services like TiVo+ and peers including Pluto TV, Tubi, the Roku Channel and more are likely seeing an increase in adoption as people stay home and need more content to watch. According to a recent survey from Integral Ad Science, 44% of respondents said they’ve begun watching a free streaming service during the COVID-19 crisis.
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TiVo+ officially launched in October last year. In addition to offering free, ad-supported streaming, the service also integrates live television, DVR recordings and third-party streaming apps like Netflix.
“We’re very excited to bring our wide array of our channels to TiVo’s new TiVo+ network. From classic movies to hilarious home videos, we’ve know we’ve got high quality entertainment that will delight every one of TiVo’s 22 million+ passionate watchers,” said Colin Petrie-Norris, CEO of Xumo, in a statement.
TiVo+ includes in-stream video advertising that’s delivered programmatically from TiVo’s advertising network. The company said that ad loads are dynamic depending on the channel and content, and TiVo has imposed strict limits that are generally less than half of what the viewer experiences on broadcast television.
A previous version of this article mistakenly stated TiVo+ ads are skippable.