VOD soars as linear viewing time tumbles across Europe

VOD soars as linear viewing time tumbles across Europe
Joseph O'Halloran
| 13 August 2018


Indicating the shift in content consumption across the leading five European markets, viewers are spending two more hours a month watching on-demand video programming according to a survey from IHS Markit.
IHSMarki OTT 13Aug2018

The Cross-Platform Viewing Time report from IHS Markit analysed TV and video consumption trends in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. It found that that linear TV viewing time declined, year-on-year, across all five markets in 2017, while time-shifted viewing, via personal video recorders (PVRs), has also stagnated or declined.

By stark contrast, the share of viewing time devoted to online platforms has increased, with an average of 10 minutes per-person per-day devoted to online short-form — that is up to 15 minutes in length — video content, and eight minutes to long-form content (over 15 minutes).

Yet the report also revealed that despite the rise in online video consumption, total TV and video viewing time in the top five European markets has remained relatively stable for the past six years, at an average of 247 minutes of TV viewing per-person each day. However, the composition of total viewing time varied across individual markets, showing with Netflix, Hulu and other subscription video options becoming more popular with consumers, particularly younger demographics.

The UK leads an on-demand market where Europeans are continuing to embrace with the country showing daily linear viewing times declining by more than eight minutes per person in 2017. PVR time shifting also declined for the second consecutive year. However, on-demand viewing added five daily minutes per person, with the UK leading in the amount of time spent viewing non-linear content compared to the other four markets. Online long-form consumption grew 21%, rising three minutes per-person per-day since 2016, with subscription over-the-top (OTT) services accounting for nearly three-quarters of viewing minutes, compared with 69% in 2016.

In France, online long-form viewing time increased by 41.6% year over year, or approximately five additional viewing minutes per-person per-day. Netflix, the leading OTT player in France, accounted for three out of four net OTT subscriptions in 2017. CanalPlay, which led the market before Netflix launched in France, experienced subscription declines and closed their standalone OTT service in 2018.

“With the increasing volume of consumption moving away from traditional linear broadcast, monetisation of on-demand and time-shifted viewing remains a key concern, as ad-insertion and tracking technology has been slow to keep up,” commented Fateha Begum, associate director of connected devices and media consumption, IHS Markit on the findings in The Cross-Platform Viewing Time report. “However, pay-TV operators are still primarily concerned with retaining subscription revenues, for the time being.”

“The shift to OTT consumption signals the need for pay-TV operators to act quickly, in order to retain their foothold in the market,” added Rob Moyser, TV and online video analyst, IHS Markit. “Leading operators are already enhancing their current propositions and embracing OTT, to ensure they capture some of the time spent on other devices and services, so they can stay at the forefront of consumers’ minds.”
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