Almost 6 in 10 TV Households Now Have A Connected TV Device

November 27, 2017

More and more TV households are adopting technologies that enable streaming video to the TV set, reveals Nielsen in its latest Total Audience Report [download page] covering Q2 2017. The share of TV households with a Multimedia Device, Game Console and/or Smart TV has broadened to 58.7%, up from 52.2% during the year-earlier period.

Close to half of those households own more than one of these enabled devices.

TV Household Penetration Levels

The most popular device is the Game Console, which is now in one-third of TV households. About 1 in 8 households (12.2%) own just a Game Console, while 9.3% pair it with a Smart TV and 6.3% with a Multimedia Device. Some 5.5% own all three devices.

Close behind, Smart TVs are now in more than 3 in 10 (30.9%) TV households. Some 11.3% own a Smart TV by itself, while another 9.3% pair it with a Game Console and 4.8% with a Multimedia Device.

Finally, more than one-quarter (25.9%) have a Multimedia Device, either alone or in combination with another TV-connected device.

Asian-American Households the Most Advanced

Nielsen’s report shows that among races and ethnicities, Asian-Americans lead the way in connected TV device penetration. That’s consistent with data showing that Asian-Americans have the broadest penetration of mobile devices and that they’re most likely to consider themselves early tech adopters.

In fact, 3 in 4 Asian-American TV households (75.6%) have at least one TV-connected device. Furthermore, the majority of these households own more than one such device, including almost 1 in 10 (9%) who own all three.

Smart TVs appear particularly popular among Asian-American TV households: almost half (44.9%) own one, alone or in combination with other connected TV devices. Almost 4 in 10 (39.4%) also own a Multimedia Device.

While Nielsen doesn’t explicitly draw a link between TV-connected device penetration and reduced traditional TV viewing, an upcoming report from MarketingCharts does demonstrate that Asian-Americans have considerably lower levels of legacy TV viewing than other races and ethnicities and have moved away from legacy TV faster than others. (Sign up here to be the first notified when The State of Traditional TV Viewing study is released.)

Meanwhile, Hispanics show the broadest adoption of Game Consoles (40%), edging Asian-Americans (39.2%) and further ahead of Black Americans (32.7%).

Reach Greatest With Kids; Teens Watch the Most

Connected TV devices’ monthly reach tends to follow a linear age pattern, being highest among kids ages 2-11 (87%) and working its way down to 66% among those ages 65 and older.

Worth noting, though, is that reach is actually slightly higher among the 35-49 than 18-34 age bracket among both Black Americans and Asian-Americans.

Daily usage, however, is highest among teens (12-17). That’s true for the general population as well as for Black Americans and Hispanics. Among Asian-Americans, though, the 18-34 bracket spends the most time each day using TV-connected devices.

These trends are important in light of data contained in MarketingCharts’ report, which reveals that traditional TV viewing among kids (2-11) has not dropped off as precipitously as it has among teens and young adults. The report reveals that unlike programming from subscription video-on-demand services, broadcast network programming is often perceived as family-friendly. Netflix, for its part, has concentrated its originals budget on adult-focused content such as dramas and comedy specials as opposed to content for kids.

The report will be available here next week.

Chart-Library-Ad-1

Explore More Articles.

Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

9 in 10 RevOps professionals view data analysis skills as being important, a high percentage also don’t believe they need this skill for their job.

Marketing Charts Logo

Stay on the cutting edge of marketing.

Sign up for our free newsletter.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This