US touchpoint trends look surprisingly similar

With one third of the US population watching digital video each week, it’s safe to say that online viewing is becoming increasingly mainstream. However, the latest US Touchpoints data shows that linear TV still rules the roost. So in a world with more content and content platforms than ever before, what – if anything – will replace television? ‘More telly!’ says The Media Native.

I am indebted to Mike Bloxham at the USA’s Media Behavior Institute for providing me with an early peek at the recently-released USA Touchpoints data.

I’m always fascinated with the USA Touchpoints data, for two reasons. First of all, just like people-meter ratings panels, Touchpoints is very much a British invention and is becoming adopted as the template for 21st century multi-media measurement, filling my inner geek with jingoistic pride.

But my main fascination is with the consistent parallels between our two markets. Here in the UK, there still tends to be a view that our US cousins are quite well ahead of us when it comes to media technology, but the way people use media over there is not so different after all.

I think this argument especially holds true for video entertainment which, let’s face it, is still by far the most powerful entertainment and marketing channel available.

I have recently written about the pricing of online video compared to TV viewing, in which I mentioned the inability of TV on demand to really break through in terms of threatening the broadcast-delivered audience to video entertainment content.

Well, it seems the same is true of the USA, despite the recent excitement about Netflix, cord-cutting and the ups and downs of broadcast ratings.

So, the latest US Touchpoints data shows that a third of the US population now use ‘digital video’ each week, but that linear TV still rules the roost, to quote their press release.

Viewing video content is ubiquitous – 99.5% of US adults consume it in the average week. It is also growing – with most of the growth coming from new devices and platforms. Online video viewing is becoming mainstream – the weekly audience has grown from 25% to 34% of the population in just 12 months, and the daily audience has grown from 7% to 11% of all 18-64s.

Meanwhile, streamed viewing and viewing via mobile devices is increasing sharply but, interestingly, reach has hardly shifted – it is still a small minority of the population, but they are undoubtedly becoming more frequent users.

However, this is still all mainly adding to, rather than competing for the TV viewing audience. To quote the Touchpoints press release;

“Despite the obvious and steady rise in the importance of digital video, Live TV viewing remains far and away the most popular means of viewing video at 95% of 18-64 year-olds (down marginally from 96.5% a year ago) in the average week.”

It goes on to point out that the home is still the centre of the video viewing revolution, even on mobiles and tablets, which suggests people still prefer to consume this content in a relaxed, familiar, comfortable environment. It also suggests that TV viewing is likely to be shared (even now) and that second-screening is less prevalent when groups of people watch together, suggesting it is much more likely to occur when viewing alone or with immediate family members.

All in all, USA Touchpoints itself shows a comforting familiarity in that it is not suggesting we are behind the curve; rather that the curve itself is perhaps less bleeding edge than we might think. Because what USA Touchpoints demonstrates is that the replacement for telly is… more telly!