Q3

2021

Conviva’s
State of
Streaming

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

1Given that streaming is up 266% over the past three years and so many people predicted the
pandemic lockdown period to be the pinnacle, it’s almost inconceivable that it continued to
grow this quarter, up 21% over Q3 2020. Not only that, but streaming platforms are investingheavily in video content on social media, particularly YouTube. So, it seems that streaming
video—whether it’s a massively popular streaming show, a trailer promoting that show on

YouTube, or a range of TikTok video fan reactions—will continue to entertain populations theworld over.

Q3 2021 highlights:•

No stopping streaming: Globally, streaming increased yet again this quarter, up
21% over this time last year, led predominately by Africa, which saw a massive 273%
increase.

•

Advertising continues advances in streaming: Between this quarter and the last,
ad impressions and ad attempts were up over 30%, a good sign for publishers andadvertisers alike.

•

Big screen domination persisted: Despite seeing a slight decrease in share overQ3 of last year, big screens still accounted for almost three quarters of viewing timeworldwide.

•

Quality impacts quantity: Engagement and quality of the experience for viewers
are highly correlated with viewers tuning out as buffering increases or picture quality
declines.

•

Buffering begone: Q3 2021 marks the first quarter that all six regions measured talliedbuffering under 1%, after significant improvements in recent quarters.

•

Streamers doubling down on social: The average streaming platform increased theircontent by 97% on YouTube, resulting in an 8.4% increase of average views per accountand an increase in engagements of 24%.

•

The biggest sporting event played a big role on social media: Olympic committee
accounts increased their following by 15% on average, gaining over 4.4 million new
followers in aggregate during the short span of the Olympics.

Conviva’s data is primarily collected using proprietary sensor technology with a global

footprint of more than 500 million unique viewers watching 180 billion streams per year
across nearly four billion applications streaming on devices. Embedded directly withinstreaming video applications, the sensor measures across content and ads to analyze
nearly three trillion real-time transactions per day for its customers. In this report, theyear-over-year data from Q3 2021 as compared to Q3 2020 was normalized based on
Conviva’s customer base.

2

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

Streaming swells sustain
Global streaming continued to increase, up 21% in Q3 2021 over the same quarter last year, ledpredominately by more nascent regions including Africa, which saw a massive 273% increase.
Oceania saw a healthy increase of 80%, followed by South America up 56%. Asia and Europe

were neck and neck with their increases, at 45% and 42%, respectively. North America, a much

more established streaming market, held steady at 2% growth, which was the same year-overyear increase as last quarter.

273%

Growth in viewing timeby regionQ3 2021 vs Q3 2020

80%
45%

21%
GlobalAfricaAsia

42%
Europe2%

N. America Oceania S. America

Advertising advances in streaming
In addition to the overall increase in content consumption,
streaming advertising also made gains after a rocky 2020.

56%

Missed Ad-23% Opportunities
15%

Between just this quarter and the last, ad attempts and ad

impressions were up over 30%, a good sign for publishers andadvertisers alike. Just 15% of ads in Q3 2021 were not delivered
as intended, for an impressive 23% decrease in missed ad

32%

Ad Attempts

opportunities quarter over quarter.

We’ve seen that the leading streaming publishers consistently

have a focus on extensive real-time analytics and intelligence for

38% Ad Impressions

both their subscription and ad-based offerings to both optimize

the customer experience and maximize return on investment. As

advertising quality improves and more advertisers see the valueof doubling down on their investments in streaming, the caliber,
relevancy, and overall ad experience for consumers is likely to
improve as well.

Q3 2021 vs Q3 2020

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

3

Global quality gains
Year over year, buffering, bitrate, start failure, and1.13% and 2.16%, respectively but still have a way to go to

gains in every region. Buffering – when the video pauses

least video start failures at just 0.69% despite a more

minutes per play (for the most part) made decent

reach parity with North America which experienced theduring playback so it can reload – improved across themodest improvement of 28% year over year.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, North America had

Video start time was the only real outlier when it camea significant 29%, to maintain its lead as the region with

Africa at 7% and North America at 3%. Asia had the worst

worst buffering at 0.98%, this is the first quarter that all

to play. Despite a 12% decline, Europe had the best starta significant accomplishment.

highest average start times at 6.56 seconds, with aboard with Africa reaping the most benefit, down 78%.

the most modest gains over last year, and was still down

to quality as only two regions recorded improvements,

the least buffering at just 0.19%. While Asia recorded thedecline in start time, up 35% in the time it took for videos

six regions measured tallied buffering under 1%, which istime at 4.18 seconds. South America experienced themodest 1% bump year over year.

South America recorded the largest improvementin picture quality with bitrate up 142% to 8.35 Mbps,

In Q3 2021, Europe enjoyed the most minutes per play

bitrate of 9.64 Mbps. Asia was the lone region to see noover-year decrease, down 1%, while Asia expectedly had

had the lowest bitrate of any region at 2.20 Mbps.

smaller screen viewing that takes place in the region.

Video start failures decreased for every region except

Africa with a 153% increase, the region came in second

start failure rate. In contrast, Asia and South America

per play on average.

but came in second to Oceania with an impressive

at 22.31 despite being the only region to record a year-

improvement year over year in picture quality and also

the lowest minutes per play at 10.74 given the increased
Despite significant improvements in viewing time into last only slightly ahead of Asia with just 13.21 minutes

Africa, which saw an increase of 7% for a 4.47% video

saw the largest improvements, down 44% and 39% toQuality by region

Real Time

Minutes / PlayVideo Start Failures

Filters

Video Start Time

Metrics

Q3 2021 vs Q3 2020

Buffering

BitrateAfrica

13.21

153%

4.47%

7%

6.40

-7%

0.85%

-78%

6.38

115%

Asia

10.74

4%

1.13%

-44%

4.54

35%

0.98% -34%

2.20

0%

Europe

22.31

-1%

1.35%

-9%

4.18

12%

0.25%

-32%

7.65

25%

N. America

21.68

2%

0.69% -28%

4.44

-3%

0.19%

-29%

7.03

5%

Oceania

21.94

26%

1.03%

-4%

4.90

7%

0.23%

-45%

9.64

31%

S. America

20.77

28%

2.16%

-39%

6.56

1%

0.58%

-37%

8.35

142%

Grand Total

20.14

1%

0.96%

-24%

4.55

4%

0.29%

-22%

6.97

10%

YoY

Q3 2021

Q3 2021

YoY

Q3 2021

Q3 2021

YoY

Q3 2021

Improvements in green

4

Global Region, declines in pink

YoY

YoY

| Best per category in green, worst in pink

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

The payoff of quality progress
There are literally millions of potential issue combinations that can impact the quality ofthe viewer’s experience. However, amidst skyrocketing demand, streaming publishers haveconsistently delivered increasingly strong overall quality. It’s no surprise that quality is a focus

for many publishers as the data illustrates how small improvements in quality, less buffering or
higher picture quality, result in gains in viewing time.

For buffering rates less than 0.4%, viewers engaged for an average of 28.44 minutes in Q3. That

dropped to 24.55 minutes with only a slight bump in rebuffering rate and steadily declined witheach incremental increase in buffering. Similarly, higher picture quality was correlated withhigher engagement, as viewers averaged more than 20 minutes at bitrate above 3.5 Mbps in

Q3. Conversely, engagement declined as bitrates dropped. The higher the quality, the more aviewer engaged, which is critical as highly engaged viewers are less likely to tune out, which

results in less monetizable minutes for ad-based streaming services, or cancel a subscription.

bitrate distribution
Play duration vs. Average
Rebuffering quality distribution

Duration (Minutes)

30

20

Average bitate (Kbps)
Rebuffering ratio (%)

10

0
>6000
0-0.4

6000-5500 5500-5000 5000-4500 4500-4000 4000-3500 3500-3000 3000-2500 2500-2000 2000-1500
0.4-0.6
0.6-0.8
0.8-1
1-2
2-3
3-4
4-5
5-10
10-50

1500-1000
50-1001000-500

500-0

Optimizing advertising for streaming
Ad Duration-3%

Q3: 26 sec

Ad Start Time-23%
Q3: 0.3

In the world of streaming, ads are just another form of content

that depends heavily on the quality of experience for its success.

While publishers and brands must consider ad effectiveness andinventory monetization, the first order of business is to ensure
ads are delivered at the seamless quality viewers expect as
engagement and quality go hand in hand.

When it comes to ad quality, ad buffering worsened 22% fromlast quarter, to a 1.3% rebuffering rate, while picture quality also

22%

Q3: 1.3%

Ad Buffering-1%

Q3: 2.93 Mbps

declined marginally, down 1% from last quarter, to 2.93 Mbps

average bitrate. But in better news, ad start time was down 23%
from last quarter. And in a good sign for consumers who reportwanting shorter ad breaks, ad duration decreased by 3% from lastquarter to 26 seconds. As competition continues to heighten and

Ad Bitrate
Q3 2021 vs Q2 2021
Q3 2021 vs Q2 2021

consumer dollars are increasingly spread thin across platforms,

quality of the ad viewing experience will be an important factor in
keeping viewers engaged for more monetizable minutes.

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

5Device divide
Near-perfect experiences in streaming have become vital as viewers demand the same levelof quality from their streams as they would expect with linear TV delivery. With the millionsof potential combinations of factors that can impact the quality of the viewer’s streaming

experience – devices, platforms, CDNs, ISPs, servers, locations, etc. — providers are required to
employ increasingly sophisticated data to target issues that are often device-specific. Theseadvances have proven effective as overall quality continues to improve with reductions in video
start failures, down 24%, buffering, down 22%, and picture quality, up 10%, across all devices.

Diving deeper into devices, most enjoyed double-digit improvements in buffering with gaming

consoles most improved, down 62% over the previous Q3 to an almost imperceptible 0.08%, andconnected TVs modestly improved with a decrease of 7%. Despite a 31% improvement, mobile
phones still tallied the worst buffering at 0.84%.

Picture quality also improved across the board with gaming consoles up the most at 16% but at

7.89 Mbps bitrate, they came in second to smart TVs which averaged 8.80 Mbps. Desktop madethe least gains, up just 3%, and had the worst picture quality of any device at 2.95 Mbps.

For the most part, video start failures were also better than this point last year; tablets were theonly device that didn’t budge, but all other devices improved with desktops the clear winner for

most improved, down a whopping 52%. Overall, start failures were 0.96% with tablets the worst at
1.47% and gaming consoles the best at 0.50%.

Video start time was fairly consistent, with most devices taking around four seconds, but

desktop took the longest at 5.02 and tablets enjoyed the fastest start times at 3.90 seconds.
Despite connected TVs, gaming consoles, and desktops all enjoying lower start times, theimprovements weren’t good enough to overcome the poorer performances of mobile phones

up 23%, tablets up 4%, and smart TVs up 1%, all contributing to the 4% overall lengthening of start
times.

Minutes per play also generally fared better than last year, as only connected TVs were down,

but by just 1%, and gaming consoles and tablets held steady with no changes. Connected TVs
enjoyed the most minutes per play at 27.56, while mobile phones had the least at 9.11.

6

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

Quality by device

Min/Play

Video Start Failures

Video Start Time

Buffering

BitrateConnected
TV Devices

27.56

-1%

0.67%

-9%

4.37

-1%

0.20%

-7%

7.36

4%

Smart TV

26.02

1%

0.68%

-1%

4.70

1%

0.16%

-25%

8.80

7%

Gaming
Console25.45

0%0.50% -29%

4.13

-8%

0.08% -62%

7.89

16%

Desktop

16.05

16%

1.08%

-52%

5.02

-4%

0.42% -24%

2.95

3%

Mobile
Phone

9.11

4%

1.33%

-24%

4.62

23%

0.84% -31%

3.83

11%

Tablet

15.31

0%

1.47%

0%

3.90

4%

0.39%

-17%

6.18

13%

Overall

20.14

1%0.96% -24%

4.55

4%

0.29% -22%

6.97

10%

Q3 2021

YoY

Q3 2021

YoY

Improvements in green

Q3 2021

YoY, declines in pink

Q3 2021

YoY

Q3 2021

YoY| Best per category in green, worst in pink

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

7

Smoking smart TVs, stagnating devices
Clear trends have emerged within the big screen category to illustrate what devices drove

growth for TV viewing time. Smart TVs were responsible for nearly all the growth among big

screens in Q3 2021, up 64% which was the most of any device, while connected TVs and gaming
consoles lagged. Connected TVs grew much slower than most devices, up just 5% year overyear while gaming consoles fell by 1% in viewing time, down for the second quarter in a row after
last quarter having the dubious distinction of being the first device to lose share in years.

Across all devices, viewing time increased 21% over this time last year. Smaller screens saw

steady gains as mobile and desktop outpaced the overall growth, up 32% and 30%, respectively,
while tablets grew less, up just 14%.

Big screen domination
Big screens, which include connected TV devices, smart TVs, and gaming consoles, continue todominate in nearly every region around the world and again took the majority share of global
viewing time at 73% in Q3 2021.

In every part of the world except Asia, big screens took the majority of viewership, particularly
so in North America with a massive 82%. Mobile phones, desktops, and tablets barely evenregistered in North America at 8%, 6%, and 4%, respectively.

In Africa, big screens captured 57% share while desktop and mobile were pretty evenly matchedat 19% for desktop and 18% for mobile. Tablets took only 6% of viewing share this quarter.

Big screens accounted for 66% of viewing share in Europe, while the rest of the devices werefairly evenly distributed. Desktop and mobile tied with 12% and tablets, like in every region, cameup last at 10%, which while low also had the highest share of any region.

Oceania had a similar breakdown with big screens at the top with 68% followed by desktop at
14%, mobile phones at 10%, and tablets with just 8%.

South America also predominantly watched big screens at 67% of viewing share. Mobile phones
beat out desktop, but only by 4%, and tablets had the smallest share of any region with 2%.

Always the outlier, Asia’s share of big screen viewership was low compared to the rest of theworld at just 14%. Desktop won the most share with 49%, followed closely—compared to thesecond-place devices in other regions—by mobile phones at 33%. Tablets brought up the rear atjust 4%.

8

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

64%

Growth inviewing time by device
Q3 2021 vs Q3 2020

32%

30%

21%

14%
5%

-1%

Connected
TV Device

Gaming
ConsoleSmart TVBig Screen

Desktop

17%

6%
11%

8%

10%

13%

33%

14%
12%

2%

S.
America

4%

N.
America8%

Oceania10%Europe12%

TabletGrand Total

Global5%

11%

Mobile Phone

4%

Asia

6%

Africa

14%

18%

19%

57%

49%

66%

68%
67%

82%

73%

Share ofviewing time by device

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

9

Big screen breakdown
Diving deeper into the big screen category, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung TV made up

the bulk of big screen viewing time globally with Roku again coming out on top with 31.1% share.
Amazon Fire TV fell from 20% this time last year to 16.8%, which was still enough to maintainsecond in front of Samsung TV, despite Samsung gaining nearly three percentage points overQ3 of last year to go from 9.4% to 12.2% share of global viewing time.

LG TV also gained considerable share over last year, up 2% to 6.4%, as did Android TV up 0.5% to5.9% and Chromecast up 0.4% to 5.1%.

Given the decline in gaming consoles’ share of viewing, it’s no surprise that PlayStation and Xbox

Share
of

vie
wi
ng

lost some share, down .7% and 1.3%, respectively, from this time last year.

e
evic
d
y
eb
5%
tim

Q3 2021

<1%

3%

3%

5%

6%

5% 4%

10

6%

Chromecast

6%

16.8%

20.0%

12.2%
6.4%
5.9%
5.4%
5.2%
5.1%

Vizio TV

2.9%

Panasonic TV
TV WebPhilips TV
Sony TV
TiVo

Hisense TV

Linux TV

Games Console Web

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

2020

31.1%

4.9%

Nintendo

17%

2021

Xbox

STB Web12%5%Apple TV

9%

5%
5%

Android TV

Linux STB

5%
6%

LG TV

32%

20%

6%

4%

Samsung TV

PlayStation

75%

10%

Amazon Fire TV

31%

Q3 2020

5%

10%

<1%

Share of big screen
Roku

11%

11%

73%

Whale OS TV

3.6%

0.22%

0.05%

0.04%
0.04%
0.03%

32.2%
9.4%
4.4%
5.4%
6.1%

5.7%

4.7%

6.2%
-

2.6%
-

0.1%
-

0.04%

0.03%

0.03%

0.01%

0.004%

0.01%

0.003%
0.002%

0.05%-

0.0001% 0.000005%

Regional TV viewing

While big screen viewing time in Asia is only 12% share

By region, big screen preference varied wildly. For

Android TV clearly won the most share of any big screenof the overall viewing time in the region, with 52% share,

instance, in North America, Roku accounted for adevice in any region as Asia’s big screen of choice. It

remarkable 39% of viewing time, while it only saw slim

was followed fairly closely by Amazon Fire TV with 22%

share in Europe and Oceania with 6%, 5% in Southand then, there was a cliff. The other devices barely

America, and in Africa, was just 1%.

chart with the next closest share being Samsung TV withjust 8% and LG TV at only 6%.

In Europe and Oceania, no big screen device dominated.
Europe broke down with the top devices having only

South America’s top four big screens were separated

a few percentages among them—Samsung TV at

by at most 7% with Samsung TV at 28%, LG TV at 21%,19%; Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Linux STB each at

Android TV with 17%, and Chromecast at 14% of viewing

12%; Android TV at 11%; and LG TV with 10% share. While

share. The rest of the devices measured all had single-

Oceania was similarly close; Chromecast with 21%,

digit share with Roku and Amazon Fire TV near theSamsung TV and Android TV both at 17%, PlayStation

bottom of the list.

with 11%, and Apple TV at 10%.

This was in sharp contrast to North America where

Africa had a much wider spread with Linux STB taking

Roku and Amazon Fire TV ranked at the top of the list,in the most share at 29% while Chromecast, Android TV,

Roku with 39% and Amazon Fire TV with 19%. Samsung

and Samsung TV followed with around 15% share each.

rounded out the top three with 10% share and again,

LG TV with 8% and PlayStation and Apple TV, both withevery other device had single-digit share with LG TV,

7%, rounded out the top devices in Africa.

PlayStation, Apple TV, and Xbox all tied at 5%.

Share of big screenby region (%)
12

Q3 2021

5

Roku

Amazon Fire TV
Samsung TV
LG TV

Android TV

PlayStation

5
5
3
5

3

52

4

North

Chromecast

19

TV Webless than 1% globally

Philips TV
TiVo

Hisense TV
Linux TV

Game Console
Web

Whale OS TV

5

5

1
5

14

17

6

23 5 4
South

America

21

11
32
32

10

11

22

4 31

8
6

52
31

5

Panasonic TV

STB Web

8

19

Asia

5

Linux STB
Nintendo

12

39

Xbox

Vizio TV

6

EuropeAmerica

10Apple TV

Sony TV

125Global

6

8 6 2

17

12

21

28

10

12

Africa

15

11

14

29
2

Oceania

17
8

17

8
15

7

7

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

11

Olympics vie for gold on social media
After delays due to COVID concerns, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics officially happened in Q3 of 2021.

In a truly global event, the worldwide spectacle took streaming and social media to new heights.
This Olympics was one of the most diverse in history. An Olympic record of 63 different nations
won a gold medal in Tokyo, but social media showed that you don’t need to win big on the

podium to win on social. Of the 206 countries that participated, 170 of them had active social

media accounts dedicated to their country’s efforts and we tracked these national Olympics
committee accounts to determine which country won the gold on social.

In total, the 170 Olympic federation accounts made around 67,000 posts during the Olympics,
10% of which were video, and totaled 148 million total cross-platform engagements on

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. These accounts gained over 4.4 million new
followers in aggregate during the short span of the Olympics, with the average accountincreasing their following by 15% during that short window. These accounts also racked up
85 million video views on Facebook and YouTube alone.

Brazil topped all national Olympics committee accounts with over 22.4 million engagements

during the Olympics, beating out U.S. which came in second despite having nearly double thefollowing. Britain, Russia, and Japan rounded out the top five in engagements. Notably, Chileand Guatemala were the only two countries in the top 25 that did not medal in the 2020 Tokyo
Olympics. Deserving of a special mention, the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of

Kazakhstan, despite coming in at 24th in overall engagement rankings, came in first in average
engagement rate at 112% throughout the Olympics.

The host nation of Japan posted most frequently, more than the other top 25 combined, withover 24,000 posts, the majority of which were on Twitter. Australia and the U.S. posted thesecond and third most with a fraction of that at 2,608 and 1,822 posts, respectively.

12

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

Olympic federation national accounts take gold on social media

170

posts

Olympic federation
national social
media accounts
tallied:67

22.4M
Comite Olimpico
do Brasil

21

million

3

21.9M

113

Team USA

13.1M

65

British Olympic
Association

7

Canadian Olympic Committee
Comitato Olimpico Nazionale
Italiano

millionmillion(15% increasein followers)

4

Account | Cross-platform engagement | Medal count6

new followers

on Facebook
and YouTube(10% of posts
included video)2cross-platform
engagements

85 148 4.4

thousandCross-platform engagement:

1

video views

7.7M

5
71

Russian Olympic
Committee

6.8M

58

Japanese Olympic
Committee

Account | Cross-platform engagement | Medal count6,475,986

24

16

5,281,498

40

17

National Olympic Committee of
the Islamic Republic of IranChinese Taipei Olympic
Committee

2,367,579

7

2,299,799

12

8

Australian Olympic Committee

5,054,156

46

18

Comité Olímpico Guatemalteco

2,224,928

0

9Comité Olímpico Español

4,979,791

17

19

Comité Olímpico de Portugal

1,689,511

4

10Czech Olympic Committee

4,966,844

11

20

Comité Olímpico de Chile

1,569,660

0

11

Comité Olímpico Mexicano

3,629,167

4

21

1,335,669

33

3,177,701

20

22

1,332,987

1

1,185,228

7

1,167,081

8

1,090,618

3

12

New Zealand Olympic Committee
Inc.

13

Comité Olímpico Colombiano

3,006,809

5

23

14

Turkish Olympic Committee

2,711,514

13

24

15

Olympic Committee of Serbia

2,545,014

9

25

Comité National Olympique etSportif Français

Comité Olímpico de Puerto Rico
Comité Olympiqueet Interfédéral Belge
National Olympic Committee of
the Republic of Kazakhstan

Argentina Olympics Committee

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

13

Team USA Olympic run
While it’s clear the United States took the country’s social success seriously, the United States
promoted their athletes and the country further by managing accounts for many individual
sports. USA Basketball topped the list of these accounts with over seven million cross-platform engagements on 534 posts. USA Gymnastics came in second at nearly five million

engagements on 343 posts followed by USA Swimming with nearly four million engagements.
USA Wrestling was the most active on social posting nearly nine thousand times on social

during the Olympics, including nearly eight thousand videos. While the top ten team sports forengagements were all summer sports, an interesting aspect of the Team USA strategy wascross-promotion from many winter sports. USA Ice Hockey, for example, came in 11th out of 60
sports accounts in total engagements.

Team USA scores Olympic engagement
July 23 - Aug 8, 2021
for individual sports
1.

Basketball2.

Gymnastics

Swimming

7,012,724

4,931,281

3,705,773

8,730,335

2,911,757

1,567,128

534

Sports accounts

14

3.

343

Engagements

254

Posts

Audience

4

Volleyball2,505,145

496

1,636,346

5Track and Field

1,602,157

689

1,276,348

6Wrestling

939,9348753

1,299,529

7

Weightlifting

810,585223

542,365

8

Equestrian

628,201203

553,420

9

Diving523,122492

134,175

10Baseball499,743399

1,027,230

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

Sports leagues continued growth
Despite overlap with the Olympics, which drew the attention of sports aficionados around theglobe, regional sports leagues increased their total social media engagements by 6% in Q3 2021
as compared to the previous Q3. The Q3 prior also represented the first return to normalcy insports as nearly every sport had restarted, and many were running simultaneously, so the gains
were not evenly experienced around the globe.

Q3 2020 was a rare moment in sports where the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, and MLS all played games

on the same day. Couple that with fans chomping at the bit for some small amount of normalcy
last year and it’s hard to compare that to a normal Q3, let alone one still facing pandemic
conditions. North American sports leagues produced fewer posts and fewer videos, both

down 16%, and garnered 12% fewer total cross-platform engagements. MLB was a highlight,

increasing their total engagements by 27% compared to the previous year, as they finished theirseason and headed into the playoffs. The unfortunate reality for North American sports is that,nearly 20 months after the pandemic began, there has yet to be a single month in which total

engagements topped the pre-pandemic social engagements totals recorded in January 2020.
In Europe, engagement soared as football leagues returned to normal business following

the Euro Cup and Olympics. Two of the biggest players in the world, Christiano Ronaldo andLionel Messi, signed with new teams and lit up social platforms, igniting a flurry of social media

engagement that broke records. Cross-platform engagement for leagues including Bundesliga,
La Liga, Premier League, and Serie A totaled more than 3.5 times the lowest month the European
leagues experienced in April 2020. Compared to Q3, European leagues tallied 7% growth inengagements. Even more impressive, these totals were reached without seeing a massive

increase in content output, as posts increased by only 8% and videos increased by just 2%.
Asian sports leagues, including Indian Premier League (IPL), Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB),and Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) saw a significant increase in engagement year overyear with total cross-platform engagements up by 36%, despite a decrease in videos posted,
down 19%. The IPL saw the biggest year-over-year increase in engagement, up 201% in July,
32% in August, and 23% in September.

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

15

6%

Sports engagement around the world

YoY growth2 billion
1.5 billion
1 billion
0.5 billion
2020

July

AugustSeptember

America leagues
YoY Growth

YoY Growth

JUL AUG SEPJUL AUG SEP

2021

-16%

2020

JUL AUG SEP

0

JUL AUG SEP

2020

1K

JUL AUG SEPJUL AUG SEP

2021

-12%

2020

1%

25K
20K
15K
10K

10K

JUL AUG SEPJUL AUG SEP

2021

7%

Engagement

YoY Growth

2020

5K

JUL AUG SEP

0.8B
0.4B

NFL

NHL

0.2B

Bundesliga

0

JUL AUG SEP

2021

2020

LaLigaSerie A

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

2021

36%

0.6B

JUL AUG SEPJUL AUG SEPYoY Growth

1B

JUL AUG SEP

0Engagement

1.2B

2020

2021

YoY Growth

50K

0JUL AUG SEP

Posts

1.4B

2021

0

60K

Premier League

16

2021

20K

YoY Growth

NBA

2K

30K

Engagement

MLS

3K

4K

40K

20K

MLB

6K

8%

40K

JUL AUG SEP

4K

YoY Growth

60K

2020

5K

8K

Posts

80K

400M
350M
300M
250M
200M
150M
100M
50M
0

7K
6K

2K

100K

JUL AUG SEPYoY Growth

10K

YoY Growth

0

-19%

Videos

12K

Posts

2020

September

14K

25K
20K

2020

AugustAsia leagues

2%Videos

40K
35K
30K

15K
10K
5K
0

July

Europe leagues-16%Videos2021

0

JUL AUG SEP

IPL

500M
450M
400M
350M
300M
250M
200M
150M
100M
50M
0

NPB

JUL AUG SEP

KBO

2021

Fatigue cooled news accounts on social
While news accounts had a record 2020 as they covered everything from the pandemic, civilrights movements, and the U.S. election, things cooled off significantly in Q3 2021.

A look at global news accounts, which includes national, international, regional, and special

interest news accounts from around the globe, showed that even with a 17% increase in posting

compared to Q3 2020, news accounts charted a 27% decrease in total engagements and a 38%
decrease in average engagements per post. Global news also experienced a 17% decrease intotal views on YouTube and Facebook and a nearly 14% decrease in average engagements pervideo.

Local news organizations, which include local and city news outlets in the United States,

became a beacon of life-saving information in 2020, but saw an even sharper decline in social
engagement in 2021 compared to the previous Q3 2020. While they posted less, 4% fewer

posts and 18% fewer videos, local news saw a decrease in total views of 42% and a decrease intotal cross-platform engagements of 46%. This was coupled with a 20% decrease in average
engagements per video and a 44% decrease in average engagements per post.

For many consumers, the lack of news is a reprieve from the continuous, 24/7 news emergenciesof the past year and half. For news organizations looking to develop new content to engage

viewers, those that recognize the decline and adapt to the content preferences of their current
viewers will weather the storm better than most.

News fatigue continues on social
Global news

17%

Local news

Videos

-4%
Posts

Video
views

Engagements

Engagements / Engagements /
video
post

-3%

-18%

-14%

-17%

-20%

Q3 2021 vs Q3 2020

-27%

-38%
-42%

-46%

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

-44%

17

Streaming invests in YouTube

Looking at total video views on YouTube, Disney+ Hotstar

Social media has rapidly become a channel where

million views in the quarter to Netflix’s 302.9 million,

increasingly with premium, full-length streaming

Disney+ Hotstar also led in average views per video

market, determine what resonates to build betterQ3 of last year. Netflix did make the top ten list twice,content on social, and to acquire audiences. YouTube

Japanese account in tenth. Amazon Prime, HBO Max,

became a cornerstone marketing tool for streaming

million, 59.5 million, and 48.7 million total YouTube views,

stole the show from Netflix with a whooping 365.3

streaming publishers must maintain a presence,

despite having an audience around a tenth their size.

content. Savvy publishers use social media to test-

on YouTube with 2.5 million, an increase of 103% overcontent, promote their catalog, monetize with brandedwith their main account in second place and with theiris a prime example of this as the social platform

and Hulu came in third, fourth, and fifth in views with 70.1

publishers in the past year. Audiences for streaming

respectively.

platform accounts grew by 66% on YouTube in Q3 2021

YouTube’s versatility as a place for trailers, behind-the-as compared to the previous year’s Q3. Streaming

scenes content, live streams, and long-form content

platforms also increased their content output on

made it one of the premier marketing platforms forYouTube by 97% which resulted in an 8.4% increase instreaming platforms, especially as viewing shifts fromviews and an increase in engagement of 24%.

mobile phones to connected TV, as recorded in our Q22021 State of Streaming. Expect additional investments inthis platform for the foreseeable future.

Streaming services surge on YouTube

97%

Q3 2021 vs Q3 2020

66%
6%

1

Rank

18

Disney+ Hotstar
365M Video views
Account2

Posts

Netflix

303M Video views

Video views

Rank

Account

23%

Video views Engagements

3

Amazon Prime Video
70M Video views

Video views

4

HBO Max

59M

8

Aha Video

29M

5

Hulu

49M

9

DAZN Boxing

23M

6Apple TV

36M

10

Netflix Japan

18M

7

Peacock TV

31M

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

Audience

Q3 2021

Conclusion
Quality improvements in advertising, by device, and per region point to better experiences for

consumers overall, which might be linked to the growth in streaming generally. Or perhaps theincreasing interest in streaming by consumers is forcing streaming platforms to do better. Eitherway, it’s a win-win for content providers and consumers.

Methodology
Data for Conviva’s State of Streaming report was primarily collected from Conviva’s

proprietary Stream Sensor technology currently embedded in nearly four billion streaming
video applications, measuring in excess of 500 million unique viewers watching 200 billion

streams per year with nearly three trillion real-time 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 data from over 2,800 accounts, over 21 million posts, and over18 billion engagements across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube in Q3 2021. Conviva’s

news leaderboard list is comprised of 1,400 national, international, regional, and special interest

news accounts from around the globe. The local news leaderboard list is comprised of over 820
local and city news outlets in the United States. Both news lists combine for a total 20 million

posts and 7.5 billion cross-platform engagements in Q3 2021. Conviva’s Olympics Federationaccounts leaderboard list is comprised of 171 different country accounts and included 67,000

posts and 148 million cross-platform engagements. The Team USA sports account leaderboard
is comprised of 60 different accounts which totaled over 27,000 cross-platform posts and
32 million cross-platform engagements in Q3 2021. Conviva’s professional sports leagues

leaderboard list is comprised of 261 team accounts and tallied over nine billion cross-platform
engagements in Q3 2021. Conviva’s streaming platforms leaderboard list is comprised of 86
different accounts which totaled over 1.1 billion views on YouTube in Q3 2021.

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.

19

Q3 2021
Conviva’s
State of
Streaming

About Conviva
Conviva is the census, continuous measurement
and engagement platform for streaming media.
Powered by our patented Stream Sensor™ andStream ID™, our real-time platform enables

marketers, advertisers, tech ops, engineering,and customer care teams to acquire, engage,
monetize, and retain their audiences. Conviva
is dedicated to 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 our platform processes nearly threetrillion streaming data events daily, supporting

more than 500 million unique viewers watching
200 billion streams per year across four billion
applications streaming on devices. Conviva

ensures digital businesses 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
20

Conviva’s State of Streaming Q3 2021 | Copyright © 2021 Conviva. All rights reserved.