In what could be an indication of the growing trend among American television viewers, a new survey reveals that over half of Americans (53 percent) watch digitally-streamed TV programs.
Streaming is well on its way to becoming a dominant means of viewership among 18-35 year olds, nearly tying top-ranked live feed TV as the way most people watch TV programming (44 percent live feed TV, 41 percent streaming).
In a Harris Poll of 2,343 adults, surveyed online between Oct. 10-15. Americans living in households with children appear to be an especially strong market for TV streaming. Those with children are more likely than those without to own many of the streaming compatible devices asked about. 62 percent own smartphones with children in their households and 40 percent among those without. Thirty-eight percent with children in households and 27 percent without children have TV with Internet access either natively or via a box or game system.
Despite U.S. adults - particularly those 35 and under - clearly seeing streaming as a viable viewing option, TV screens are far from endangered. When asked to select the way or ways in which they most often watch television programs, roughly nine in 10 Americans (89 percent) point to their TV sets, sans streaming. However, while over half (56 percent) identify a live feed as the way, or one of the ways, they most often watch TV programs, roughly three in ten each specify watching recorded (32 percent) or cable- or satellite-provided on-demand (29 percent) programming.
Two in 10 Americans indicate that they are watching more online/streaming TV content now than a year ago (20 percent) and they expect to be watching more a year from now (19 percent). Among those not watching more when compared to a year ago, roughly six in 10 (59 percent) indicate that there are factors which could encourage them to watch more online/streaming TV programming; top factors include improved free streaming options (31 percent), access to programming they currently cannot (or don't think they can) get via streaming (20 percent), not having to watch on a computer screen (19 percent), access to a sufficiently fast connection (17 percent) and ease of access (17 percent).
A combined three in 10 Americans (30 percent) have the ability to watch streamed programming on their TV sets (19 percent via set top boxes or game systems, 17 percent via Internet-compatible TV sets), and two in ten (20 percent) list streaming - on any device - as among the ways they most often watch TV programs.
