US connected TV uptake slows

According to a segment of the analyst’s eleventh annual Benchmarking the Connected Consumer study, a survey of 2,000 household decision makers in. the US, CTV’s intrinsic is inherently tied to the uptake of high-speed residential internet services while CTVs are reaching beyond the living room and master bedroom to other rooms of the home.

The study showed that in second-quarter 2020, the number of broadband households increased by 1.35 million and a year later, only 900,000 were added to the tally, a decline of a third. TDG expects this trend will continue, adding that recent market gains provide a clear sign of what the future holds. It noted that consequently, growth in the number of CTV households has plateaued. For example, August TDG research found that 85% of broadband households use a CTV, up roughly 25% from 2015 but only 1.2% from 2020. Roughly 85% of all US households also now subscribe to a high-speed internet service, and recent data suggested the pace of new gains was quickly diminishing.

Among CTV households in the TDG study, the device’s presence in the home living/family room increased from 77% in 2020 to 83% at present. The most notable increases, however, occurred in the master bedroom – up from 41% to 50% – and second bedrooms (up from 22% to 28%), with penetration in most other rooms was also increasing, except for den/game rooms.

“When products and services near saturation, growth declines to the low single digits and the market becomes a zero-sum game in which one operator’s gains are actually the losses of another,” noted TDG president and principal analyst Michael Greeson regarding the Benchmarking the Connected Consumer study. “New growth in CTV penetration will come in small increments. The more steadfast opportunity is in growing the number of units per home, a trend that is well underway.” Rapid TV News