As the most recent OTT and live streaming statistics for 2020 show, consumers are increasingly eager to cut the cord and adopt new ways of devouring content.

Despite fears of flattening the market, OTT services have given consumers more choices and freedom to explore personalized content, platforms, and devices on their own schedules.

So to kick off the “streaming decade” of the 2020s, we’re highlighting stats about the rapidly evolving world of live and streaming video in this guide.

And we’re starting with:

ott growth statistics

Consumers are trying and paying for a variety of subscription-based and ad-supported video streaming services. Along with the potential for subscription fatigue, this type of growth means:

1. The global OTT market is projected to reach $332.52 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 16.7% from 2018 to 2025. (Allied Market Research)
2. Consumers now have over 300 streaming video services to choose from. (Deloitte Insights)
3. More people have at least one streaming video subscription (68%) than a traditional pay-TV subscription (65%). (Deloitte Insights)
4. But pay-TV isn’t over; 43% of US households still subscribe to both pay-TV and streaming video services. (Deloitte Insights)
5. The number of digital video viewers in the US topped 235 million in 2019, which represents 71.2% of the country’s population. (eMarketer)

ott advertising statistics

As consumers discover more content to watch, they’ll spend more time on their respective OTT platforms/connected devices. Advertisers gain a nationally representative, captive audience.

So stats show:

1. Advertising makes up 45% of all online video revenue and is projected to grow to almost 60% over the next 10 years. (Video Advertising Bureau)
2. Connected TV (CTV) and OTT ad spending are expected to reach nearly $11 billion by 2021, up from nearly $7 billion in 2019. (eMarketer)
3. YouTube will account for about 40% of US CTV ad spending; Roku and Hulu will collectively represent an additional 30%. (eMarketer)
4. 46% of OTT customers are willing to pay $10/month for ad-free service; 25% prefer a free service with some ads. (OpenX)
5. While streaming content, 65% of viewers use a second screen to look up info about a product being advertised during their program. (Video Advertising Bureau)
6. 72% of OTT users can recall seeing a specific OTT ad. (OpenX)

ott consumer behavior statistics

OTT consumer behavior stats give content creators and advertisers data to make important decisions about how to best reach their target audience.

When you crunch the numbers:

1. The average OTT user streams more than two hours of content every day. (OpenX)
2. Millennials who subscribe to at least one OTT service watch more than twice as much OTT content as they do live TV. (OpenX)
3. 65% of OTT time on the home TV screen is spent watching subscription video-on-demand (SVOD); 30% is spent watching free streaming services (FVOD); 5% is spent watching transactional streaming services (TVOD). (CMO)
4. Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z binge the most episodes (between six to seven episodes in a single sitting). In contrast, Boomers only watch four to five episodes. (Deloitte)

ott usage statistics by country

OTT success largely depends on the infrastructure in developing regions. Now that the technological advancements in these emerging markets are finally catching up to demand, expect streaming packages to get bundled with cell phone data plans.

This means:

1. China will triple its OTT revenue to US $26 billion by 2023, or 20% of the world’s OTT revenue by that time. (Digital TV Europe)
2. The UK will emerge as the world’s third highest-grossing OTT market with $6.8 billion in revenue, followed by Japan at $5.3 billion and Germany at $3.8 billion. (Digital TV Europe)
3. Due to the large population, consumers in India spent over 45 billion hours watching app-based video streaming services, over double their US counterparts. (App Annie)
4. South Koreans watched the most hours per person of video content (around 10 billion hours). Spread over their population of 51 million, this averages almost 2,000 hours per individual. (App Annie)
5. Revenues from OTT TV episodes and movies for 19 Latin American countries will reach $4.6 billion in 2022. SVOD will remain the region’s largest OTT revenue source, contributing $2.86 billion by 2022 (62% of the total). (Market Research)
6. Brazil will account for 34% of the region’s 32.54 million SVOD subs by 2022, with Mexico bringing in a further 28%. (Market Research)

ott platform statistics

Stellar content libraries and ease of discoverability remain the leading reasons why viewers choose one platform over another. As data shows:

1. The average OTT user streams content across three devices and uses three different OTT services. (OpenX)
2. YouTube is watched by 84.2% of US digital video viewers. Netflix will be viewed by 67.6% of US digital video audiences, and Hulu will garner 32.2%.(eMarketer)
3. Roku and Amazon comprise nearly 70% of the US base for streaming media players. (Multichannel)
4. Roku has 39.8 million active accounts, making it the second-largest TV streaming platform in the world. (FierceVideo)
5. Nearly 25% of Netflix’s iPhone users also watched Disney+, the highest overlap of users among top video streaming apps in the US. (App Annie)

ott device usage statistics

User experience separates the best streaming devices from their competition, even if they’re streaming the same content. So when it comes to how users are streaming content, data reveals that:

1. The US has over 820 million connected video devices. (Video Advertising Bureau)
2. The average US household operates 12 internet-connectible devices as of 2019. (Marketing Charts)
3. 61% of Americans own a Smart TV, and 52% use OTT services. (OpenX)
4. 47% of US Wi-Fi households own a streaming box/stick (Marketing Charts)
5. OTT consumers use their mobile devices for more than six hours a day, on average, and watch more than two hours of mobile video each day. (OpenX)
6. Two-thirds of frequent on-the-go mobile video viewers are men. In contrast, the majority (59%) of those who never stream mobile video are women. (OpenX)
7. The global Android TV market size is expected to reach around US $231 billion by 2026, with a CAGR of around 20% between 2019-2026. (Acumen Research and Consulting)
8. On mobile, people watch videos for an average of 2.8 minutes for VOD and 3.5 for live streams. (Tubular Insights)
9. On tablets, people watch videos for an average of 7.1 minutes for live streaming versus 4.1 minutes for VOD. (Tubular Insights)
10. On a desktop, people watch videos for an average of 34.5 minutes for live streaming versus 2.6 minutes for VOD. (Tubular Insights)

live streaming statistics

Experts predict live streaming will make up the majority of all video streaming growth in the future. Breaking news, sports, and major events (like national elections) increase live streaming audiences.

Now stats indicate that:

1. Live video grew by 93%, with an average viewing time of 26.4 minutes per session. (Conviva)
2. Viewers spend 8x longer with live video (43 minutes) than on-demand (5 minutes). (Tubular Insights)
3. 45% of live video audiences would pay for live video from a favorite sports team, speaker, or performer. (Livestream)
4. Millennials are the largest group of consumers of live content; 63% of them watch live-streaming content regularly. (Neil Patel).
5. Millennials are most likely to watch live video on a smartphone (56%) or tablet (44%). (Pipe Wolf Media)

live streaming quality statistics

Live streaming quality has improved dramatically, with even better buffering and video start times than many on-demand video choices. Now:

1. Video quality is the most critical factor for 67% of viewers when watching a live stream. (Livestream)
2. Streaming quality seems to be progressing. Video start failures (the #1 reported issue) are down 33% year-over-year, buffering is down 41%, and picture quality is up 25%. (Streaming Media)
3. The 5G cell network rollout will provide speeds roughly 100 times faster than the best available 4G LTE networks. (Streaming Media)
4. Almost 30% of consumers would pay a premium if 5G provided better video quality on mobile devices and decreased buffering. (PWC)

ready to capitalize on these OTT and live streaming statistics?

As these stats for 2020 show, the OTT and live streaming sectors are primed for steady growth.

If you’re ready to see how your company can take advantage of this trend and get in on the ground floor, contact our team today. We design and build better digital experiences that drive businesses now and in the future.

Get in touch with Zemoga today!

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The research and statistics contained in this post were published during the COVID-19 pandemic. Streaming usage has exploded during this time period while advertising spend has suffered greatly. That said, some of these statistics or projections may change quickly and are likely to showcase even higher engagement rates across the board for usage, downloads, and other related metrics.