Plenty Of Potential In Streaming Video Services
Author: Tobi Elkin. Source: MediaPost
Given the barrage of streaming video services—Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, SlingTV and many more--it’s remarkable that there are still some people who’ve never watched live streaming video.
But there are. Research consultancy Magid Advisers found that 28% of respondents in a survey have never tuned in.
On the flip side, nearly half of the respondents, 48% of U.S. internet users surveyed, said they view streaming video at least once a week.
MediaPost’s Laurie Sullivan recently reported on the Magid research, which found that Facebook Live actually had the highest share of viewing--45% market share, followed by YouTube Live at 44%, Instagram with 28%, Twitter at 19%, and Snapchat at 17%.
Other services made up a portion of streaming video viewing, with Twitch at 12%, Livestream 10%, Periscope 9%, YouNow 6%, and UStream 4%.
Interestingly, the most popular content was breaking news, chosen by 24% of total respondents. Who would think that news would prove to be so compelling? Perhaps the Trump era is supporting this development -- along with the factthat the world has gotten smaller. Video from friends and family stood at 23%, while how-to videos and video from YouTube celebs came in at 21%. Comedy video comprised 18%.
The video habit is fairly sticky. When Magid analyzed live views, it found 12% of respondents watch live video several times a day, 11% watch once a day, 17% watch several times a week, and 8% watch one video a week.
Those figuressuggest that there’s plenty of growth potential. Of course, the live video habit competes for consumers’ time with other media. Is streaming video a preferred destination? Is it more preferred than, say, mobile gaming? Is streaming video becoming a leading activity among all the other ways people can spend time with media? It's looking like a contender, to be sure.
When Magid surveyed the reasons why people access live video streams, it found that these streams make viewers feel like they’re “in-the-know” (25%), while 20% said watching streams makes them feel as if they're part of an event.
And in a time when marketers and other entities shove their desire to be “authentic” down our throats, it’s notable that 17% of respondents said live video feels authentic.
Magid surveyed 2,400 online consumers ages 8 to 64 in May and June.
As more marketers move toward live video, they’ll need to understand where audiences are consuming that content. For example, they might be engaging with video on Facebook.
But if a marketer wants to move consumers over to an owned property to deepen the relationship, what’s the right approach? The challenge is how not to lose already engaged viewers.