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Online Video Usage Blossoms within U.S. Households

Consumption of on-demand streaming video continues to grow in American homes, at the expense of broadcast TV viewership. According to the latest market study by Parks Associates, the average U.S. broadband household now watches more than 17 hours of non-linear video per week, compared to 11.5 hours of linear video.

The research firm has examined the market for over-the-top (OTT) video entertainment services and streaming media devices and made some assumptions about the key trends shaping consumer demand.

"Non-linear video accounts for 49 percent of the video consumed on the TV, and it is already the majority, 60 percent, of TV video viewed by consumers 18-24," said Barbara Kraus, director of research at Parks Associates.

Growing consumer demand, alongside new OTT service announcements from HBO and CBS, is driving all players in the video ecosystem to add streaming capabilities to their devices. The negative impact on legacy pay-TV services is likely to be very significant.

Parks ongoing streaming-media research will examine the expanding role of devices with streaming capabilities and the future balance of linear versus non-linear video viewing among connected consumers.

That said, Parks Associates market research already demonstrates that Americans are also using connected consumer electronics (CE) for purposes outside video.

Nearly 40 percent of U.S. broadband households that use the smart TV as their primary connected device regularly access and spend at least one hour per week using Facebook on this device.

Parks believes that we are at a crossroads in television entertainment when it comes to streaming media. This crossroads presents a two-pronged shift -- one on the content side and one on the hardware side.

Ultimately, the solution that provides consumers the most content choices and the ability to watch that content on a variety of devices easily will be the one that wins market share.

As the content licensing landscape continues to evolve, and consumption on various devices becomes a checklist item by consumers, the CE industry will be pushed to provide a higher degree of content options in a simple-to-use device.

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