Samsung Ads Europe has revealed in its latest report on the Samsung Smart TV landscape, ‘Behind The Screens’, that streaming habits, accelerated by the pandemic, have become routine as consumers adjust to post-lockdown life.
Samsung Ads Europe, the media and advertising division of Samsung Electronics, leveraged insights from millions of Samsung Smart TV devices across ‘EU5’ countries: UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
Samsung Ads Smart TV viewer data is broadly representative of all TV users for each country, verified by Kantar ComTech TV data.
Streaming stabilises its position
In 2020, time spent streaming overtook linear TV minutes on Samsung Smart TVs in the UK.
Whilst undoubtedly exacerbated by lockdown, there is evidence that streaming is a habit set to stay within the Samsung Smart TV environment, despite the gap between streaming and linear narrowing since 2020.
For H1 of 2021 in the UK, Samsung Smart TVs consumed 32 minutes extra per day of streamed content versus linear.
The UK is leading the streaming trend in the EU5, consuming an average of 13% less linear TV than Samsung Smart TVs in Germany, Italy, Spain and France.
Summer of linear sport
Linear still draws in the crowds for live sporting events.
2021’s summer of sport with Euro 2020, Wimbledon and the Olympics, took linear to the top for the first time since March 2020.
While we have seen this shift back to streaming in the months since, it’s clear that British audiences still love to watch sporting TV together and on terrestrial TV.
In fact, Samsung Smart TVs in the UK saw a 20% jump in average hours spent watching linear in June.
While streaming remains overall more popular on Samsung Smart TVs, there is still an appetite for linear around major live events.
AVOD takes a leap
SVOD (subscription-based video on demand) has remained largely flat, growing steadily at 4% year-on-year in terms of time spent viewing per TV.
Meanwhile, AVOD (ad-supported video on demand) has started to close the gap, the Korean electronics firm said – amassing a 150% growth in the UK since January 2020.
It now accounts for 50 minutes per day on Samsung Smart TVs in the UK.
This reflects the growth of traditional AVOD services like YouTube as well as the increasing popularity of FAST platforms like Samsung TV Plus, which saw a 23% year-on-year growth between Q3 2020 and Q3 2021.
Alex Hole, Vice President of Samsung Ads Europe, said: “While we saw many changes in viewership over the past 18 months, many stakeholders within the CTV ecosystem awaited to see if those changes stuck.
“The initial results are in and while linear still dominates for live TV, we can see that streaming has become an entrenched habit among Samsung Smart TVs in the UK.
“This means that keeping a close eye on where a given audience will be spending – and splitting – their total TV time is more critical than ever if advertisers wish to reach them in the right moments.