“With the proliferation of online video content, viewers are moving away from traditional broadcast television viewing and have increasing expectations for broadcast-quality experiences,” said Michael Milligan, Senior Director at Limelight Networks. “Our research over time has shown a clear increase in expectations and decreasing patience with poor quality experiences.”
Additional insight from the report includes:
- Millennials Watch the Most Online Video. Younger people watch the most online video, with viewers 18-25 averaging seven hours, 18 minutes per week and people 26-35 watching six hours, 53 minutes per week. Viewers 60 and older only watch three hours, 46 minutes per week.
- The Growth of eSports. Although traditional sports programming was the third most watched type of online video content by men, males 18-25 watch more eSports and online video gaming than traditional sports programming.
- Consumers Won’t Waste Time on a Poor Experience. Rebuffering (when a video pauses during playback to load more content) is the top frustration when viewing videos online – surpassing poor video quality and limited device access. If a video rebuffers twice, more than 61 percent of viewers will stop watching. Only 15 percent will continue watching after rebuffering happens for a third time.
- Smartphones Gain Popularity for Viewing. Although computers and laptops are the primary online video viewing device globally, smartphones are the preferred device in India and South Korea. Smartphones are also the preferred device for millennials.
- Cable Subscribers Keep the Cord and Go Further Over-the-Top. Despite cord-cutting concerns, the report uncovered that people subscribing to cable have twice as many over-the-top subscription services than those without cable.
- U.S. and India Lead Subscriptions to Online Video Streaming Services. Consumers globally are signing on to streaming with 30 percent of viewers noting they subscribe to two or more services. Subscription rates are highest in the U.S. and India, where 50.8 percent and 46.8 percent, respectively, subscribe to two or more services. In comparison, only 16.7 percent of respondents in France subscribe to two or more services.
- Movies and TV Shows Lead Online Viewing. Globally, viewers spend more time online watching movies than any other type of content. However, viewers in South Korea and the U.K. watch TV shows most often. When viewed by gender, men prefer movies, while women prefer TV shows.
The “State of Online Video” report is based on a survey of 4,000 consumers ranging in age, gender, and education in France, Germany, India, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, the U.K., and the U.S. The complete “State of Online Video” report is available here.
About Limelight
Limelight Networks Inc., (NASDAQ: LLNW), a global leader in digital content delivery, empowers customers to better engage online audiences by enabling them to securely manage and globally deliver digital content, on any device. The company’s Limelight Orchestrate Platform includes a global infrastructure with a fully-integrated suite of capabilities and services to help you address all your content delivery needs. The Orchestrate Platform solves your most important content delivery challenges so you can deliver the next great digital experience anywhere. For more information, please visit www.limelight.com, read our blog, follow us on Twitter , Facebook and LinkedIn and be sure to visit Limelight Connect.