Cordless television consumers are on track to become the predominant TV consumer in the next year.
That’s the primary finding from the fourth Future of TV survey from The Trade Desk.
More than 4,000 U.S. adults participated in the survey.
According to The Trade Desk’s data crunchers, 47% of American TV viewers are already cordless.
But, some 44% of Americans with cable TV anticipate pulling back or cutting service in the coming year.
For industry observers, that’s hardly a surprise. Cord-cutting accelerated as television programming such as live sports became unpredictable through the COVID-19 pandemic and as consumers’ hunger for on-demand content grew.
For The Trade Desk, the shift to Connected TV appears to be solidifying with the majority of TV viewers ages 18-34 and ages 35-54 — some 60% and 53% respectively) already without cable.
These age groups are among the most coveted by advertisers.
CAN’T STOP STREAMING
Streaming skyrocketed in popularity even for sports viewing, which has traditionally been a driver for linear TV viewing, The Trade Desk finds.
According to the survey, only 19% of TV viewers are returning to their pre-pandemic sports viewing habits. Meanwhile, 44% who watch sports are choosing a primary viewing source outside of linear TV. That number increases to 65% among sports viewers ages 18-34.
“We are entering a new TV normal, where new streaming viewing models sit side by side with traditional TV formats,” said Tim Sims, Chief Revenue Officer at The Trade Desk. “From an advertiser’s perspective, this shift presents a tremendous opportunity. They can reach those streaming TV viewers with more precision and accuracy than ever because they can apply data to those TV campaigns in a way that’s not possible with linear. So, it provides incremental reach that’s an important element of a comprehensive TV ad campaign.”
The research also indicates the current TV content arms race cannot be financially sustained for providers or consumers without relevant ads, and consumers are becoming more receptive to advertising even on Connected TV.
According to the study, more U.S. TV viewers report watching streaming content with ads (44%t) than without ads (33%). Indeed, nearly two-thirds of U.S. TV viewers (64%) don’t want to spend more than $30 in total per month on streaming services, making free or lower-cost ad-supported services more attractive to consumers.
Meanwhile, The Trade Desk shared the findings of a separate survey of 150 advertisers conducted with Advertiser Perceptions. That research found that 92% of advertisers believe Connected TV is as good as, or outperforms, linear TV advertising, compared to the eight percent who say it’s not as effective.
Their advertising budgets support this view, with 45% of advertising professionals increasing their Connected TV budgets over the last year. What’s more, among those who shifted budgets to Connected TV, 91% said they will maintain those shifts or increase investments in Connected TV.
The report does have its bias: The Trade Desk is a technology company that created a self-service, cloud-based platform allowing ad buyers to create, manage, and optimize digital advertising campaigns across ad formats and devices.
As such, it has a vested interest in the success of Connected TV.
