Daily Average TV Time Seen Falling by 10 Minutes After Pandemic High

Daily average time spent with TV and digital video, including streaming, will drop next year to 333.6 minutes, about 10 minutes less a day than in 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic fueled a bump in viewing, said a Wednesday eMarketer report. But viewing trends continue to shift "irrevocably" toward digital, it said.

Next year, time spent with traditional TV will drop to 171.1 minutes from 196.6 minutes in 2021, eMarketer said. Traditional pay-TV viewership will drop from 149.8 million in 2021 to 135.2 million next year, largely due to rising service prices for “the same or less value of programming,” eMarketer said. Live events, once the domain of traditional pay TV, are being streamed more today, reducing that advantage for legacy TV services, it said.

About two-thirds of the U.S. population are connected TV (CTV) users, with 227.6 million forecast for 2023, the report said. Traditional pay-TV advertising will be relatively flat next year at $66.3 billion, but CTV advertising is seen growing to $23.9 billion next year from $14.2 billion last year. “All the growth in TV screen advertising will come from the digital side,” the report said, citing the “more refined” targeting capabilities possible with CTV and the ability to drive and track specific outcomes.

Ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) is the new “streaming gold rush,” said the report, forecasting an increase in AVOD viewers from 129 million last year to 150.6 million in 2023. Viewership is growing for Hulu and Peacock, which both have ad-supported and ad-free subscription models. Disney+ announced last month it will launch an ad-supported membership option this year in the U.S., it noted, and eMarketer expects the service to be priced less than Disney+’s current $7.99 monthly offering.

Among AVOD viewers by platform, YouTube viewership will reach 138.7 million next year vs. 125.1 million in 2021, said the report. PlutoTV is seen growing to 61.5 million viewers in 2023 from 55.1 million, and The Roku Channel will grow to 56.8 million from 50 million last year, it said.

For services with ad-supported and ad-free models, Hulu is forecast to grow membership to 134.9 million next year from 116.3 million in 2021; Peacock to 70.7 million from 51.1 million; and Disney + to 56.8 million from 50 million, it said.

TV screen advertising spend will grow by over $14 billion in the next four years, as U.S. viewing patterns shift toward digital and more consumers cut the cord and move to CTV, the report said.