Total TV Viewing Up 246% With Help From Apps

Online TV is growing rapidly in popularity, according to a new study. The findings suggest our mobile video viewing habits are up 57% over this time last year. Overall online video is up 43%, while our TV intake in general is up a staggering 246%.

The metric used to reach that massive uptick in views is called TV Everywhere, which tallies our total authenticated views across platforms. The findings do not include services like Netflix, instead focussing on those videos that come via a cable subscription.

With mobile services like Comcast Xfinity and Dish's Hopper, cable companies can reach us wherever we go. Third party apps like HBO GO or ESPN still require a cable subscription to take advantage of some or all of the content included.

That keeps us tethered, which keeps the cable companies happy. The more we view, the more ad space they can sell. If we use something like Netflix, there are no ad spaces — we pay Netflix, and Netflix feeds us content.

As for how we access this content, iOS apps were the most popular. Apple's platform eclipsed browsers for the first time this year, with Android in third place. Viewing via game consoles also increased dramatically. Though they comprise only 6% of the total views, that number is up from 1% last year.

Source: The New York Times