New Conviva Data Shows Significant Drop in Ad Demand Despite Quality Improvements; Streaming Growth Normalizing After Pandemic Peak
Conviva, the leader in global streaming media intelligence, released its quarterly State of Streaming report for Q2 2020 today, showing streaming video advertising saw a sharp decline in the past quarter with ad attempts in Q2 down 28% globally and 22% in the U.S. as compared to Q1 2020. The report also details the impact of COVID-19 with expanded regional benchmarks illustrating that while streaming continues to grow overall, it slowed in May and June as compared to its height in April when shelter-in-place orders drove streaming viewing up 81% year over year.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806005191/en/
Conviva's State of Streaming Q2 Report (Graphic: Business Wire)
Ad Demand Drops while Quality Improves
While advertising demand dropped in Q2, due in part to a lack of sports, streaming ads saw significant improvements in overall quality. Viewers spent 38% less time waiting for an ad to start in Q2 as compared to Q1 and as a result, pre-ad viewer-initiated exits dropped 22%. Ad picture quality also improved, with bitrate up 53%.
Despite quality improvements, nearly 45% of ads represented missed opportunities. The most common advertising issue continues to be the lack of demand as publishers try to fill ad slots, but no relevant ad is available.
“Shelter-in-place mandates skyrocketed streaming viewership in April, led by Europe which saw a 174% increase year over year,” said Bill Demas, CEO, Conviva. “Unfortunately advertising moved in the opposite direction with global demand significantly reduced due to COVID-19. We expect advertising to bounce back in the coming quarters as the industry and viewers acclimate to a ‘new normal’ including streaming being part of the everyday routine.”
Streaming Device Growth: TV Sees Triple Digit Increase
Conviva uncovered significant increases in viewing as people tuned in natively within their smart TVs. Global share of smart TV viewing more than doubled as viewing time increased 239% year over year. Also bolstering television viewing were connected TV devices (Roku, Amazon Fire TV, etc.) which saw a 61% increase and game consoles a 55% increase in time spent streaming year over year.
Global device share in Q2 2020 included:
- Smart TVs: Samsung commanded half of all viewing time via smart TV, followed by LG TVs with 23%, Vizio TVs with 11%, Android TVs with 8% and Amazon Fire TVs with 7%.
- Connected TV Devices: Roku remained the leader among connected TV devices, capturing half of the total viewing time for the category. Amazon Fire TV captured 29%, Apple TV 8.7%, Chromecast 7.3%, Android TV 3.6% and Humax 1.3%.
- Gaming Consoles: PlayStation bested Xbox in streaming viewership at slightly over 50% of viewing time versus Xbox’s 47%.
Connected TV devices had the largest share of viewing time in both North America (56%) and Europe (32%). In South America smart TVs (40%) has the largest share of viewing time, while in Asia (49%) and Africa (43%) desktops remain the primary streaming device.
Viewers Embrace YouTube on Bigger Screens
YouTube is primarily watched on mobile devices which captured 59% share of time spent in Q2 2020. However, the trend towards TVs also impacted YouTube as viewing on connected TVs and consoles accounted for a 25% share of YouTube viewing in Q2 2020, a 69% increase from 16% share the prior Q2.
Socializing Sports with No Sports
On social media, North American professional sports bottomed out in June, with social engagements by sports teams down more than 71% from their 2020 low in January while European professional sports teams increased their social engagements by 64% in June as compared to their 2020 low in April. A notable bright spot for North American leagues on social was the NFL Draft in late April, as the NFL teams surpassed NBA teams in total engagements for the only time during the year.
Methodology
Data for Conviva’s State of Streaming report was primarily collected from Conviva’s proprietary sensor technology currently embedded in three billion streaming video applications, measuring in excess of 500 million unique viewers watching 150 billion streams per year with 1.5 trillion real-time transactions per day across more than 180 countries. Year-over-year comparisons were normalized at the customer level for accurate representations of industry growth. The social data is comprised of data from over 1200 accounts, over 5 million posts and over 7 billion engagements across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
About Conviva
Conviva is the leader in streaming media intelligence, powered by its real-time platform. More than 250 industry leaders and brands – including CBS, CCTV, Cirque Du Soleil, DAZN, Disney+, HBO, Hulu, Sky, Sling TV, TED, Univision, and WarnerMedia – rely on Conviva to maximize their consumer engagement, deliver the quality experiences viewers expect, and drive revenue growth. With a global footprint of more than 500 million unique viewers watching 150 billion streams per year across 3 billion applications streaming on devices, Conviva offers streaming providers unmatched scale for continuous video measurement, intelligence, and benchmarking across every stream, every screen, every second.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806005191/en/
Contact information
Paula Winkel
pwinkel@conviva.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
U.S. Original Equipment Automotive Industry Must Transform and Collaborate for Future Resilience and Relevance Finds Joint Research by Arthur D. Little and MEMA OE Suppliers22.11.2025 05:20:00 EET | Press release
At a time of unprecedented volatility, the U.S. original equipment (OE) automotive industry is at an inflection point. Building resilience and driving reshoring requires concerted actions from policymakers, original equipment manufacturers and suppliers. This is the key message from Turbocharging US Automotive Manufacturing Competitiveness, an in-depth Arthur D. Little (ADL) landmark study, carried out in conjunction with industry body MEMA Original Equipment Suppliers. The study draws on research from over 100 global OE automotive suppliers with major U.S. presence and more than 30 interviews with C-suite executives of leading global OE automotive suppliers. Based on ADL analysis, the research provides clear recommendations for transforming the industry to strengthen supply chain resilience and underpin national competitiveness and global relevance. High import dependence exposes the U.S. OE automotive supply chain to cost volatility and geopolitical risk. Current reshoring efforts, d
AI Takes Out the Trash: Largest U.S. Recycling Project to Extend Landfill Life for Virginia Residents21.11.2025 14:30:00 EET | Press release
The Southeastern Public Service Authority of Virginia (“SPSA”), the regional waste authority for South Hampton Roads, has signed a 20-year contract with Commonwealth Sortation LLC, an affiliate of AMP Robotics Corporation (together, “AMP”), to provide solid waste processing services for SPSA’s eight member communities and their 1.2 million residents. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251120330758/en/ Building on a nearly two-year pilot project in Portsmouth—which featured an AMP ONE™ system capable of processing up to 150 tons of locally sourced municipal solid waste (“MSW”) per day—AMP will now scale its technology region-wide. Under this long-term partnership, which will facilitate the largest recycling project in the country, AMP will deploy additional MSW sortation lines and an organics management system capable of processing 540,000 tons annually to divert half of the waste SPSA brings to AMP facilities. AM
RSA Recognized for the Second Consecutive Year in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Access Management21.11.2025 14:00:00 EET | Press release
RSA, the security-first identity leader, today announced that RSA® ID Plus has been recognized for the second year in a row in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Access Management. “The RSA Access Management strategy has never been about being everything to everyone,” said Greg Nelson, RSA CEO. “We specialize in protecting organizations where risk tolerance is at its lowest and security requirements are at their highest. Our focus is intentional: providing security-first access management that supports compliance, ensures resilience, and delivers confidence at scale.” “RSA specializes in the workforce access management use cases where security, compliance, and operational resilience are non-negotiables,” said Jim Taylor, RSA President, Chief Product and Strategy Officer. “Our product development strategy will continue to emphasize the key qualities that highly regulated industries prioritize, including user experience, strong support for workforce management, and intelligent posture mana
NIQ and Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) Collaborate to Measure Reach and Impact of Cross-Platform Ad Campaigns in Italy21.11.2025 10:00:00 EET | Press release
NIQ and Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) have announced a new collaboration to study the effectiveness of cross-platform advertising across linear TV and Amazon Ads inventory in Italy. Through the collaboration advertisers and agencies will gain actionable insights into the relative performance of ad placements across digital, linear TV and streaming environments, including how each contributes to incremental reach and influences product purchases on Amazon’s ecommerce platforms. The insights are made possible by using high-quality data from Sinottica®—a well-established single-source consumer panel in Italy owned by NIQ—with data from Amazon Marketing Cloud. Specifically, the research will leverage Sinottica’s linear TV data alongside several Amazon inventory sources, including Amazon DSP, Sponsored Ads (Products, Brands, Display), and Streaming TV (Prime Video, Twitch, Fire TV). This approach will enable a deeper understanding of how ad exposure across digital and TV channels translates
Ahead of Holiday Season, Visa Identifies Five Transformative Forces Reshaping Global Payment Security20.11.2025 20:50:00 EET | Press release
To celebrate International Fraud Awareness Week, Visa (NYSE: V) today released its Fall 2025 Biannual Threats Report, revealing five forces that are transforming the global payments security landscape. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251120412198/en/ The report, produced by Visa's Payment Ecosystem Risk and Control (PERC) team, draws on intelligence from Visa's global network to identify how criminal operations are evolving with unprecedented speed, scale, and sophistication. "The payments ecosystem is experiencing a paradigm shift in how fraud operates," said Paul Fabara, Chief Risk and Client Services Officer at Visa. "Criminals are no longer working as opportunistic individuals-- they're operating like tech startups, building reusable infrastructure and deploying systematic, industrial-scale operations that challenge conventional defenses. Understanding these evolving forces is critical for the entire ecosy
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom