As a millennial I haven’t cut the cord for my Cable yet. I know I know if I were to admit that to my millennial peers I would probably be cast off into the Gen Y group, but before you bounce let me explain why. My biggest reason is live sports. I am a sport junky, I love watching any type of competition even if its horses running around a track. Live sports has really been what has kept the pay TV industry around in my mind, and it was also what launched access to other types of content through mobile and digital means.
According to Adobe Digital Index, movies and broadcast/cable content is the fastest growing genre in TV Everywhere consumption. In a year that included the Olympics and World Cup that is saying a lot. Sports have proved to be a great hook for myself and other consumers to try out the TV Everywhere experience, and then expand to viewing other pieces of content. This was the case for me when I first logged with my Comcast account to watch March Madness 2 years ago. I also appreciate that I can access this great content through apps on my Apple TV.
In a mobile revolution where we have endless content at the edge of our fingertips, its hard to imagine a headline about digital video growth happening in our living rooms. The latest analysis by Adobe Digital Index shows that the usage of connected devices for viewing TV Everywhere content, where you have to authenticate with pay tv credentials, has increase by 4x year over year.
The Adobe Digital Index reviewed 285 Billion TV Everywhere authentications and also found that the growth is being led by Apple TV. With the news of connected TV growth and the explosion of TV everywhere consumption, our mobile video revolution has come full circle back to our living rooms. Its true the larger screen devices make viewing content on devices a better experience than before, but I for one have always preferred to wait to watch a show from the comfort of my own home.
The TV Everywhere revolution has also led to consumers deciding when they want to view content. It used to be that we were forced to wait until the Thursday night line up to see the best content that broadcast TV had to offer, but now with on demand content, we as consumers are showing that we prefer to view on Wednesdays for share of viewing and Fridays for binge viewing. The pattern shift allows marketers and publishers to know when to target consumers in this evolving industry.
The TV industry is due for a makeover and with WWDC this week we will have to see what Apple has to say about the evolution of its pay TV service and connected device. I expect Apple to announce a pay TV service by 2016 and that may lead to pay TV providers to follow suit with a more ala carte approach for consumers. Until then, I will continue to pay for the on demand and sports content that I get access to through my pay service.
