Nielsen: SVOD Services in 41 Percent of U.S. Homes

NEW YORK: According to Nielsen’s latest Total Audience Report, 41 percent of U.S. homes had access to an SVOD service in Q4 2014, an increase of 36 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

“When looking at how homes with access to subscription-based streaming services compare to a typical TV home, homes with broadband and no SVOD—and even homes with no broadband at all—we see that SVOD homes really go ‘all in’ in terms of the devices that they are using through their traditional televisions,” said Dounia Turrill, the senior VP of insights at Nielsen. “From DVRs to video game console usage, these homes—perhaps because of their income level—both adopt and rely of these devices at a much higher rate. Technology begets technology.”

The report found that homes with subscription streaming services have both a fondness for TV-connected technology and display the greatest usage of these devices—nearly 50 minutes more a day than a typical TV home. Additionally, these homes average 10 more minutes daily watching time-shifted TV and double that in terms of time spent using a multimedia device (such as Apple TV and Roku) than a typical TV home.

The report also found that penetration of both high-speed Internet and SVOD access are strongly income-related. About 13 percent of homes boast multiple streaming services in their homes and nearly half of homes with SVOD access have a yearly household income of more than $75,000, while two-thirds of homes without broadband access have annual household incomes of less than $40,000.