LINEAR TV STILL OUTPERFORMS STREAMING AND OTT IN EUROPE

Despite the growth in digital video content viewership, linear TV is holding on as the main source for watching video content on the European continent.

Linear TV remains the largest source of video content in Western Europe, despite a gradual decline in minutes watched. This is according to analysis of OTT & Video and TV Distribution in Europe from Dataxis. The published data shows that video content viewing trends in Western Europe and the United States are diverging. The main difference lies in streaming and social media: in North America, digital video has surpassed traditional TV in 2023, while in Europe TV continues to play a key role in reaching viewers.

Viewers in the US spent an average of 2 hours and 30 minutes a day watching linear TV last year, about 15 minutes more than in the UK but 15 minutes less than in France and Germany and 30 to 40 minutes less than viewers in Spain and Italy. Television accounted for approximately 60% of total video consumption in France, Germany and Spain last year and up to 70% in Italy. In the UK, where streaming services are widely available and where traditional broadcasters have been at the forefront of the transition to digital platforms, that figure falls to 55%. Even so, TV is still far ahead of streaming - the latter, in the case of subscription video services and BVOD (broadcaster video-on-demand, content from TV broadcasters available on demand) accounts for 25% of total minutes watched.

But digital video is on the rise in the European markets studied, according to the study. Viewers in France, Germany and Italy will watch 45 minutes less TV on average in 2024 than they did five years ago. In the UK, the decline has been even more pronounced, with 55 minutes per day dropping between 2019 and last year. Spanish TV has proved more resilient, seeing a decline of less than 30 minutes over the same period.



However, consumption of subscription OTT services is starting to stagnate compared to other digital video segments: in the UK it grew by just over 2% year-on-year, while in Spain and Germany it grew by 4%. In France and Italy, this growth is faster. At the same time, however, all five markets under review have seen double-digit growth in BVOD consumption, reflecting the strong shift of domestic audiences towards watching TV content on digital platforms. However, this growth has not yet been able to compensate for the audience decline faced by linear TV channels.

Source: mediaguru.cz