Harris Interactive "Streaming" continues to be a major trend in Americans' constantly evolving television viewership habits. A 2012 Harris Poll found that a majority of Americans had watched TV shows via this method, and other polls since have explored its use as a way to watch programming on one's own schedule and the role of sports viewers as the rare exception to increasing reliance on streaming and other "delayed" viewership options.
But looking specifically at those watching videos through subscription services, what are viewing habits looking like inside the "stream?" Does the vast amount of content encourage subscribers to pick and choose? And does the rise of streaming mean the fall of channel surfing?
These are some of the questions The Harris Poll set out to answer, in a study of 2,242 U.S. adults surveyed online between June 17 and 22, 2013 by Harris Interactive. (Full results, including data tables, can be found here)
Are Subscription Streamers Sticking with their Selections?
Over a third of Americans (35 percent) qualify as "subscription streamers," indicating that they sometimes or often watch streaming videos through a subscription service; an additional 12 percent say they rarely do so.
The majority of subscription streamers (56 percent) indicate that when watching streaming video through a subscription service, they either "dip their foot in" (meaning they give it a few minutes to catch their interest – 24 percent) or "quarterstream" (meaning they give it until about a quarter of the way through to do so – 32 percent). An additional 11 percent give it until "midstream" (or about halfway through), while one-third (33 percent) go "full stream ahead" (committing, once they start, to watching the whole thing).
When asked to reflect on their viewing habits by agreeing or disagreeing with a series of statements, seven in ten subscription streamers (70 percent) fess up to being very picky about what they watch through a subscription streaming service. Majorities also agree that checking out the beginnings of several videos on such a service is "the new channel surfing" (59 percent) and that when streaming through a subscription service, a video needs to wow them quick or they'll find something else (56 percent). One-third (32 percent) will watch just about anything on such a service, and two in ten (20 percent) think they might have "SADD – Streaming Attention Deficit Disorder."
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