Q1

2021

Conviva’s
State of
Streaming

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q1 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

1

Conviva’s State of Streaming – Q1 2021
2021 came with some optimism for a return to normalcy but there might be a new normal for
streaming. A new normal that sees big screens dominate viewing as people watch less on

smaller, mobile devices. A new normal where social investment is paramount and the powerfulconfluence of social, streaming, and advertising can no longer be ignored. A new normal

where viewers watch when it’s convenient for them rather than following regularly scheduled
programming live. While many trends continued in the first quarter of 2021, new directions
appeared for the burgeoning industry.

2•

Streaming continued to grow: Global viewing time grew by 36% year over year led bySouth America, Europe, and Africa with triple-digit growth, while the more establishedstreaming regions of North America and Asia saw moderate growth on larger
denominators.

•

Big screens are here to stay: Streaming on big screens accounted for 73% of global
viewing time. While people are streaming more, they are at home on larger screens
as smart TVs saw the biggest expansion of viewership with a 115% increase over Q1 oflast year. In contrast, mobile phones, tablets, and desktops saw growth in line with theglobal average.

•

Roku’s lack of international penetration: While Roku captured a significant 30%
share of global big screen viewing time, this dominance was primarily driven by North
America where it commanded 37% share in Q1 2021. In Europe, the second largest
market for Roku, Roku only accounted for 8% share of the big screen, and it did not fareany better in other regions, with 4% share or less in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and SouthAmerica.

•

Streaming publishers’ investment on social pays off: Total social media posts bystreaming publishers was up 99% over Q1 last year—with more content translating tomore followers. The overall social audience was up 60% for streaming publishers like
Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and Crunchyroll, with TikTok a major factor in that growth.

•Super ad lift: The Super Bowl was again a massive television event and advertisers
who activated their ads on social as well as during the big game had three times moreengagement up to six weeks after the Super Bowl than they did pre-Super Bowl.

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q1 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

Streaming publishers reap big rewards on social media
Video is prime social content, so it’s no surprise that streaming publishers have gone all inon social in new and exciting ways to kick off 2021. Total posts from streaming publishers

on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube nearly doubled from Q1 of last year, up 99%,
and publishers posted 39% more video content. While engagements dropped in many
categories towards the end of Q4, streaming publishers saw success of their contentheavy strategy with total engagements up 24%.

The additional content didn’t only increase engagement, it also boosted audience growthby 61% across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube, with TikTok driving muchof the growth for streaming publishers. Unsurprisingly, Netflix handily dominated the list of
streaming publishers in terms of cross-platform total audience with 234 million followers

across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube as of Q1 2021. Apple TV, Amazon

99%

Prime Video, WWE Network, and Disney+ made the top five, as each captured more than 10
million cross-platform followers. A number of lesser-known streaming publishers join Hulu
to round out the top 10, including Crunchyroll, Funimation, LOL Network, and AsianCrush.

39%
Total
Posts

24%

Total
VideosTotal
Q1 2021 vs Q1 2020Engagements

1

61%
Growth in
Audience

Q1 2021 vs Q1 2020

Growth in Content & Engagement

2
234M

3
33.4M

4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube

WWE Network
Disney+Crunchyroll
Funimation
LOL Network
Hulu
AsianCrush

23.1M
17.1M
10.3M
9.95M
9.90M
9.87M
7.49M
6.18M

Top 10 Streaming Publishers by Total Audience
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q1 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

3

Super Bowl advertisers see second life on social
Super Bowl ads, trailers, and teasers generated
more than half a billion views acrossFacebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube

The average cross-platform engagement rate
for all Super Bowl advertisers was .50% in Q1.

over the first 6 weeks of the year. More

While it’s expected that the advertisers who

for the 60 Super Bowl advertisers we measured

social would see a bump around the big

times higher than pre-game averages. Cross-sustained increase in average cross-platform

Bowl advertisers in the first few weeks of 2021

Super Bowl advertisers should note theup to the big game and dropped slightly toengagement and build audiences even in theimpressively, the lift in social engagement rate

activated their Super Bowl ads heavily on

continued long after the big game, at threegame, it’s unexpected that the ads had such aplatform engagement rate was .15% for Super

engagement rate well after the game. Future

before it peaked at 1.51% in the week leading

ROI of video content on social to increase.95% during the week of the Super Bowl.

weeks following their Super Bowl ad.

1.15%

0.46%
0.15%

Engagement is

3X Higher

post-Super Bowl
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Weeks of 2021

The Super Bowl Advertising Lift

Tracking Average Social Engagement Rate forSuper Bowl Advertisers in Q1 2021

4

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q1 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

9

10

11

12

Streaming advertising bounced back

Q1
2021

QoQ
Change

4.94

57%

Ad Start Time

0.5 sec-50%

Ad Buffering

1.91%

9%

Ad Duration

28 sec

-11%

28%

-16%

Ad Bitrate

Missed Ad Opportunities
Ad Impressions

13%

Ad Attempts

4%Latest Range of SPI for Streaming Ads

45% SPI

81% SPI% of good ad experiences

In more great news for streaming advertising

There is more work to be done on the advertisingchallenging second half of 2020 with improvements

deliver a mixed bag in terms of ad quality. Conviva’s

this quarter, ad demand rebounded from thein quality and fewer missed opportunities, alongwith more ad attempts, up 4%, and ad impressions,up 13% from Q4 2020. Ad picture quality and ad
start times delivered significant improvements
of more than 50% higher bitrate and less time

waiting for ads to start. Ad buffering was the lonequality metric to falter a bit with a 9% increase inbuffering in Q1 2021 as compared to the previous

quarter. Meanwhile, ad duration decreased 11% to28 seconds, with more 15-second ads than theprevious quarter.

front as publishers and advertisers continued toStreaming Performance Index (SPI) for ads is a

unified metric that rates what percentage of ad
experiences were good for viewers. In our latest

review of SPI for ads, scores varied between 45%
and 81% for publishers. The SPI score considers
buffering, bitrate, abandonment during the ad

break, and excessive frequency defined as viewing
the same ad more than three times per session.
While SPI varies significantly across the different
platforms, and live content consistently has alower score, even the best is only delivering a goodexperience for viewers 81% of the time, while on the
opposite end of the spectrum more than half ofviewers are not having a good experience with ads.

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q1 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

5

Big screens dominate globally
As viewers flocked to streaming with time spent streaming up 36% globally year over year in

Q1, it’s no wonder that advertisers are making the shift as well, especially as the uncertainty felt

throughout the pandemic has begun to lift. Impressive triple-digit gains continued again in Q1 in
multiple regions, spurred by new streaming providers driving significant viewing internationally.
In Q1 2021, South America saw a 240% increase in time spent streaming, followed by Africa, up

149%, and Europe with a 122% increase over last year. The more established streaming markets

of North America and Asia both had comparatively meager growth in time spent at 18% and 15%,
respectively.

240%

122%

36%

149%
N. America

Grand Total

18%
Europe15%

Asia

Africa48%

S. America
Oceania

Growth in Viewing Time by Region
Q1 2021 vs Q1 2020

In nearly every region, big screens dominated streaming as connected TV devices, smartTVs, and gaming consoles captured the lion’s share of viewing time. Big screens were mostdominant in North America capturing a massive 81% share, however in most regions big screens
accounted for at least 50% of all viewing time. At the opposite end of the spectrum, big screens

captured just 11% share of viewing time in Asia while desktop and mobile phones dominated witha combined 84% of viewing time.

Diving deeper into the big screen devices that made up so much of the world’s viewing time, thediversity in preferred devices was strikingly different regionally. While Roku captured a significant
share of global viewing time, this dominance was primarily driven by North America where it

commanded 37% of big screen viewing time in Q1 2021. In the second largest market for Roku,

Europe, the company only accounted for 8% share of the big screen, trailing a number of otherdevices including Samsung with 19%, Chromecast with 12%, Amazon Fire TV with 10%, LG TV with

10%, and Android TV with 9%. Roku does not fare any better in other regions, with 4% share or lessin Africa, Asia, Oceania, and South America. Some interesting leaders emerged as the top big

screen device in different regions including the CanalPlus set top box with 54% share of viewing
time in Africa, Android TV’s 49% share in Asia, Chromecast in Oceania with 24%, or Samsung TV
in South America at 30% share in Q1 2021.

6

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q1 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

2%
8%

19%

4%

8%

11%

11%
5%

7%
10%

18%

Share of
Viewing Time
by Region

11%

4%

Q1 2021 vs Q1 2020

39%

13%

56%

Desktop
Mobile23%

15%

Big Screen

Tablet

45%
64%

16%

Africa

63%

67%

81%

Asia
EuropeN. America
Oceania
S. America% of Big Screen
22 6

1

2
9
2

Africa

54

9

Asia

49

7

6
9

1

3

2 3

2 3 2

15

26

16

Roku

Amazon Fire TV

Oceania

24

7
11

6

LG TV

PlayStation
Xbox

9

11

Samsung TV

Apple TV

Chromecast
5

4 3

8

Europe

12
5

5

6

10

9

8

10

6

19

3

2 4

2

13

North
America

5
4

10
22

37

South
America15126Android TV

12 4 3Vizio TV
Humax
30

SkyQ

Other
Linux

23

CanalPlus

Conviva’s
Conviva’s State
State ofof Streaming
Streaming Q1
Q1 20212021 || Copyright
Copyright ©
© 20212021 Conviva.
Conviva. All
All rights
rights reserved.
reserved.

77

Regional quality variance

To be expected, quality varied across regions. All regions

While moderate, overall quality of the experience

minutes per play, decrease in video start time, andexcept Asia delivered a year-over-year increase in

decrease in buffering. Where Asia declined, Africa madeimproved globally with 13% higher picture quality,

the biggest year-over-year improvements in all key

5% less video start failures, and 5% less time waiting

metrics except video start failures, where it was actuallyfor buffering, as start time held steady. Overall,

improvements in quality typically result in viewers

engaging for longer amounts of time and this remainedtrue as minutes per play increased by 5% to an averageof 20.8 across all regions.

the worst. Africa also lagged in almost every metricwhen comparing each region in Q1 of 2021. Conversely,
North America had the lowest video start failures andleast buffering, while Asia had the lowest video start

time and Oceania had the best bitrate. Europe had thehighest minutes per play at 23.7 in Q1.

Quality by Region

Real Time

Minutes / PlayVideo Start Failures

Global Region

Filters

Video Start Time

Metrics

BufferingQ1 2021 vs Q1 2020
BitrateAfrica9.9

176%

3.88 %

24%

6.83 sec-15%

1.92 %-63%

6.74 Mbps

206%

Asia

10.9

-6%

0.56 %-35%

2.67 sec

7%

1.30 %

30%

1.97 Mbps

10%Europe23.7

12%

1.24 %-14%

3.78 sec-3%0.31 %-31%

6.89 Mbps

58%

N. America

21.8

4%

0.44 %-18%

4.41 sec-1%

0.25 %-13%

6.71 Mbps

7%

Oceania20.4

8%1.18 %-25%

4.88 sec-5%0.33 %-29%

9.16 Mbps

21%

S. America

19.0

59%

2.88 %-18%

6.25 sec-8%

0.84 %-29%

4.67 Mbps-29%

Grand Total

20.8

5%

0.70 %-5%

4.24 sec

0%0.34 %-5%

6.55 Mbps

13%

YoY

YoY

YoY

Big screens are here to stay

115%

Smart TVs engaged viewers with the biggest
expansion of time spent over Q1 of last year

YoY

YoY

Growth in Viewing Time
Q1 2021 vs Q1 2020

with a 115% increase, while tablets followed withan increase of 43%, and desktops roundedout the top three with 38% more viewing time
to beat the 36% global average. Growing lessthan the average, mobile phones were up 29%

in time spent streaming, connected TV devices36%

up 27%, and gaming consoles up just 14% over

29%

27%

14%

the span of a year.

Grand
Total

8

Connected TV
Devices

Smart
TV

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q1 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

Mobile
Phone

43%

38%

Desktop

Gaming
ConsoleTabletVizio TV

71%

Apple TV

6%

7%

6%

PlayStation

6%

11%

1%
2%
6% 2%

11%

Big Screen

20

TabletOthers

5%

5%

7%

9%

6%

Roku

Fire TV

33%

22%

Samsung TV

Desktop

20

11%

7%

Mobile

11%

4%

LG TV

Q1 2021 vs Q1 2020

1

5%

Xbox

Global Share of
Viewing Time
2
20

5%

73%

3%

3%

Android TV
Chromecast

Others

12%

Roku

30%

Fire TV% of Big Screen
Others<1% Share

2021

2020

Xfinity X1
Humax
SkyQ
Other
Linux
Sagemcom
CanalPlus
Philips TV
Huawei
Panasonic TV
Sony TV
TiVo
Hisense TV
YouView
Netgem

0.9
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.1
0.041
0.038
0.037
0.033
0.004
0.002
0.001

0.01
0.8
0.1
0.4
0
0.2
0
0.1
0.003
0.029
0.027
0.074
0.001
0.008
0.001

19%

Streaming on big screens accounted for a massive 73% of viewing share in Q1 2021, up from

71% share the previous Q1. While people are streaming more, more and more, they are at homeon larger screens. When it comes to which big screens led the pack in Q1 2021, it was definitely
Roku with more than 30% share of global big screen viewing time, although this is the result ofa strong North American streaming market today. International growth of streaming overall, in

regions where other players dominate, resulted in Roku’s 2.9% drop in share from the previous Q1.
Amazon Fire TV, which also decreased in global share from last year, maintained a solid second

place with nearly 19% share of big screen viewing time. While native smart TVs commanded lessglobal share, Samsung TV, LG TV, and Vizio each experienced significant growth over the past
year to grow their share to 12%, 6%, and 3% respectively.

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q1 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

9Devices return mixed quality improvements
Big screens historically have more stable, higher quality. Case in point, smart TVs improvedin every quality metric and also had by far the highest picture quality with a bitrate of 8.35

in Q1 2021. While connected TVs experienced some declines in quality over the last year, they

still delivered the least video start failures of any device and captured most minutes per play.

Gaming consoles continued to impress with the least buffering of any device at 0.14% in Q1 2021
after a significant 36% improvement over the past year.

Mobile remained static in video start time but declined in overall quality with 5% more video

start failures and 10% worse buffering year over year to top all devices at .96% buffering rate. It

was also the only device to decline in minutes per play, down 2% to just 9.1 minutes on average.
Tablets delivered improvements in all quality categories but still tallied the most video start
failures of any device at 1.38%. Desktop improved in most categories, but video start timeincreased 15% for the worst performance at 4.84 seconds in Q1.

10
10

Min/Play

Video
Start Failures

Video
Start Time

Buffering

BitrateOverall

20.8 | 5%

0.70% | -5%

4.24 | 0%0.34% | -5%

6.55 | 13%

Connected
TV Devices

29.0 | 2%

0.44% | 11%

4.35 | -4%

0.23% | 5%

7.11 | 9%

Smart TV

27.3 | 3%

0.53% | -16%

4.70 | -3%

0.19% | -18%

8.35 | 9%

MobilePhone

9.1 | -2%

0.83% | 5%

3.55 | 0%0.96% | 10%

3.55 | 6%

Desktop15.9 | 20%

0.84% | -20%

4.84 | 15%

0.61% | -5%

2.96 | 13%

Gaming
Console25.9 | 2%

0.59% | 11%

4.10 | -9%

0.14% | -36%

7.19 | 6%

Tablet16.0 | 4%

1.38% | -11%

3.82 | -1%

0.44% | -5%

5.64 | 21%

Conviva’s State
State ofof Streaming
Streaming Q1
Q1 20212021 || Copyright
Copyright ©
© 20212021 Conviva.
Conviva. All
All rights
rights reserved.
reserved.
Conviva’s

Global Viewing TimeLive vs On Demand

Q1 2021On Demand24%

Q1 2020

45%

28%

Live

72%

14%
76%

Overall36%
Share

GrowthGlobal Quality Q1 2021
Minute/Play

Video Start Failures

Video Start Time

Buffering

Bitrate

Live

19.6

0.64 %

4.54 sec

0.35 %

7.04 Mbps

On-Demand

25.7

0.92 %

2.94 sec

0.34 %

4.95 Mbps

On-demand and live streaming get big boosts
Overall growth over the last year was 36%, as on-demand content grew much faster with an almost
45% increase, while live streaming was up 14%. On demand now accounted for more than threequarters of all time spent streaming in Q1 with 76% share to live’s 24% share.

When it comes to quality, live streaming is technically very challenging, but the stakes are often

higher for a good experience. Sports is a main driver of live content and there’s nothing worse than aquality breakdown in the middle of a touchdown. Head-to-head quality comparison put live on top in
two of the key experience metrics, buffering and video start time, while live also captured significantly
more minutes per play at 25.7 versus 19.6 for on demand. On demand won in video start failures atjust 0.64% and a much higher bitrate at 7.04 versus live streaming’s 4.95.

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11

Things aren’t back to normal just yet
The first quarter of 2020 saw sports provide

North American leagues were a bit more

pandemic caused sweeping changes inincreases in both posts, up 12% and 11%, andthe last few normal moments before theeverything from programming to attendance

to promotion. It is interesting to see then where
sports leagues are a year later. A number of
leagues have been able to not only recoverfrom the mid-pandemic lows, but also thrive.
The Premier League teams tallied a 52%

increase in total engagements, even with just
a 16% increase in posts. They weren’t alone intheir success, all European leagues, including

Bundesliga, La Liga, Premier League, and SerieA, saw increases in engagement and posts
created from their teams.

volatile. While the NFL and NHL grabbed

engagements, up 6% and 5%, other American
leagues didn’t fare so well. MLS teams saw

the largest decrease in both total average
posts, down 44%, and total engagements,

down 54%. The MLB was the only league tochart a decrease in posts, down 19%, with anincrease in engagements, up just 3% year overyear. Despite increasing posts by the most of
any league, NBA teams saw a 10% decreasein engagements. In parallel with stadiums

beginning to allow a trickle of fans back in thestands, it might also be a few more quarters

until things are running as they once were onsocial.

52%
39%

Increase in Content & Engagement

Q1 2021 vs Q1 202018%

Total Posts

Total Engagements

Share of Videoon Social
Video Only
Other Type of Post

3%

12%

6%

11%

5%

14% 13%

17%

16%

13%

8%

21%

22%

44%

35%

32%

18%

23%

23%

18%

MLB

MLS

NBA

NFL

NHL

Bundesliga

LaLigaPremier
LeagueSerie A

-10%
-19%

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube
videos, at 44% of total posts, than any othersports league measured. The NFL came in-44%

while MLS and MLB relied less on video at 22%-54%

and 21% respectively. Comparatively, European

Social video creates magicfor some sports leagues

American leagues with 23% of Premier League

Video is an important part of any brand’s

strategy on social media and can be evenmore critical for sports franchises as they

promote highlights, players, and fans. In Q1

2021, NBA teams posted a far higher share of

12

second at 35%, followed by the NHL at 32%,

leagues posted fewer videos than North

and La Liga’s posts as videos and Serie A and

Bundesliga at just 18%. As different sports havevaried highlights and ways of commenting

live during games, it’s interesting to note thereliance on video and potential for teams

to optimize by post type depending on theirsocial strategy.

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q1 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

2

19

1

27

4
1

MLS

4

1 3
8

NBA
NHL
NFL

6

1 3 MLB

34

30
37 27

N. America 46
21

41

%

14

43

2

18

46
15
31

23

30

13

Bundesliga

8

1

37

27

6

Serie A

3 3 LaLiga
4 3 Premier League

Europe
%

48

43

64

55

25

24

Social Sports Audience

Share of Followers by Platform for Sports Leagues
Q1 2021
Facebook

Instagram
Twitter

YouTubeTikTokSports league audiences shift on social media
Social audience has shifted. A large factor is the growing
prominence of TikTok. In Q1 of 2020, TikTok accounted for
only 1% of total sports audiences; this year, that grew tocame in second on Instagram netting a 30% share ofaudience there in Q1.

4%. With the largest share of any North American league,

The North American leagues dominated Twitter as thetotal social audience in Q1. In Europe, Bundesliga holds

the platform than their European counterparts. The NHL

NFL won on TikTok which represented 8% of NFL teams’NHL, MLB, MLS, NFL, and NBA all landed more audience onthat title as TikTok also captured 8% share of audience

topped audience share with 37%, followed by MLB at 30%,

for those teams.

then MLS and NFL both at 27%.

For more established platforms, Facebook maintained

The Premier League teams utilized YouTube the most,for nearly all leagues. In Q1, the NHL was the only league

from the previous year. While 4% might not seem likethan Facebook at 34% share. Serie A had the highest

million subscribers on YouTube. La Liga came in second

audience at 64%. La Liga had the highest average shareat 2%.

a clear dominance in terms of total average audience

charting a 4% share of audience on the platform, up 1%

to have a larger average Twitter audience, at 37% share,a large number, Premier League teams averaged 1.1

average percentage audience share of Facebook

on YouTube audience share with 3%, followed by Serie A

of Instagram followers per team at 37%, and the NBA

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q1 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

13

Conclusion
As we get our first glimpse of the year-over-year pandemic impact, it isclear that consumer interaction with streaming, advertising, and social
media have been altered by the course of the past year. It is almost

inconceivable to imagine what the world would have looked like undersimilar circumstances in some other time. Without the flexibility of streaming
as people escaped to different rooms and into different worlds via theirdevices. Without the virtual interaction on social media that provided acreative outlet, a way to connect across distances. These pandemic lifelines
have become fixtures of our daily lives, and show no signs of subsiding as
the world inches towards a new normal in 2021.

Methodology
Data for Conviva’s State of Streaming report was primarily collectedfrom Conviva’s proprietary sensor technology currently embedded in 3.3
billion streaming video applications, measuring in excess of 500 million

unique viewers watching 180 billion streams per year with 1.8 trillion realtime transactions per day across more than 180 countries. Year-over-year comparisons were normalized at the customer level for accurate

representations of industry growth. The social media data consists of datafrom over 900 accounts, over 1.8 million posts, 910 thousand videos, 6 billion
video views, and over 35 billion engagements across Facebook, Instagram,
TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube.

14

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q1 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

Q1 2021
Conviva’s
State of
Streaming

About Conviva
Conviva is the intelligence cloud for streaming

media. Powered by our patented Stream Sensor™
and StreamID™, our real-time platform enables
marketers, advertisers, tech ops, engineeringand customer care teams to build, engage andmonetize their audiences. Conviva is dedicatedto supporting brands like CCTV, DAZN, Disney+,
Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, Sky, Sling TV, TED

and WarnerMedia as they unlock the incredible
opportunity in streaming media. Today ourplatform processes nearly 2 trillion streaming
data events daily, supporting more than 500
million unique viewers watching 180 billion

streams per year across 3.3 billion applications
streaming on devices. Conviva ensures digitalbusinesses of all sizes can stream better—every
stream, every screen, every second.

Any Questions?
Visit www.conviva.com or contact Conviva at
pr@conviva.com.

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15