Traditional television viewing still dominates in the United States, according to comScore. Households with both traditional television as well as online television and video services still watch nearly five and a half hours of live television for every hour of online viewing. Netflix is watched for just under and hour a day on average per household with the service. Sling TV is the most watched online television and video service, with household viewing of around an hour and a half a day.
A report from comScore considers major shifts in cross-platform consumer behaviour, including how time-shifted and over-the-top viewing are changing the television viewing landscape.
The evidence of its research is that while behaviour is changing, particularly among younger people, traditional television remains dominant.
Millennials are already spending more time on mobile apps than watching live television, although live television still dominates for those aged over 55.
Viewing television at the time of transmission accounts for 84% of total television viewing, compared to 14.9% for digital video recordings and just 1.1% for video on demand. For prime-time programming, digital video recordings rise to 24.6%. These figures exclude streaming via online services.
Unsurprisingly, drama programmes have a higher share of viewing from digital video recordings, at 29%, compared to news and sports at 10%.
The research found that among those that used online television and video services, only 15.4% did so exclusively, with a further 15.2% combining this with over-the-air television, while 24.3% also had satellite and 45.1% had cable television.
Households with both traditional television as well as online television and video services still watch nearly five and a half hours of live television for every hour of online viewing.
Even the heaviest online viewers watch twice as much live television as online. Those in the top fifth of viewers by online viewing duration still watched nearly seven hours of live television for every three spent viewing online. Those in the bottom half by online viewing duration spent 98% of their time watching live television and only 2% watching online.
Netflix has the highest household penetration and viewing time per month among the major online television and video services, at approaching 28 hours per household in December 2016, or just under an hour a day. Hulu has lower adoption, but also reached over 25 hours a month per household. YouTube accounted for almost 17 hours a month, with 70% of that on mobile devices.
The highest viewing was for Sling TV, in use by nearly two million households by the end of 2016 and being viewed for an average of 48 hours per household a month, or around an hour a half a day per household. That compares to over 30 hours of television a week watched on average by individuals across America.
The 2017 U.S. Cross-Platform Future in Focus report is available from comScore. It is based on behavioural measurement from comScore Media Metrix Multi-Platform, which provides unduplicated reporting of digital audiences across desktop computers, smartphones and tablets.