Strategy Analytics

At last week’s ATSC conference in Detroit, Hyundai had news about an ATSC 3.0-equipped vehicle on the horizon and a bevy of new test results were shared. Above (l-r): Robert Foster of Auton, Kerry Oslund of E.W. Scripps, Coast-to-Coast test consulting engineer Merrill Weiss, Luke Fay of Sony

U.S. viewers will spend more on streaming video than pay TV for the first time in 2024, according to new research from Strategy Analytics. The company is releasing its latest U.S. Subscription TV Forecast, which projects that consumer spending on traditional pay TV services fell by 8% to $90.7 billion in 2020. It expects that number to decline further to $74.5 billion in 2023. At the same time, spending on subscription streaming services (including VOD and virtual MVPDs) rose by 34% to $39.5 billion in 2020 and will reach $76.3 billion in 2024, surpassing traditional pay TV.

Connected TV devices are proving to be a popular gift this holiday season, as Strategy Analytics is reporting that global sales of CTV devices are expected to reach record heights, largely due to both the holidays and people recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Content consumption shot up during quarantines, but a new study shows that when restrictions began to be lifted, streaming numbers came down from what they were during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Strategy Analytics surveyed U.S. adults over March, April and May to find COVID-19’s impact on SVOD. For Netflix, 47% of respondents used the service in March, then 50% did so in April. However, in May, when many states began to ease lock-down restrictions, that number dropped to 42%.