Total time spent with media per day in the US will decline slightly in 2022, but most pandemic-era gains will be retained. Digital video, subscription OTT services, and smartphones will be among the bigger winners this year.

Our projected viewership numbers for Netflix, even allowing for a downgrade in our forecast when we update it later this year, will continue to outpace its subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) competitors. According to our current estimates, Netflix will reach 192.7 million US viewers by 2026.

The average time spent with subscription OTT video content in the US will surpass 62 minutes per day this year, up 23.0% from 2019, according to our latest estimates. That's an acceleration from 2019, when it grew by 15.0% year over year.

Not surprisingly, looking at time spent with subscription OTT video services among their users, time spent has risen even higher. Subscription OTT video service users will spend nearly 2 hours (1:59) per day on these services, up from 1:32 in 2019. In 2020, Netflix and YouTube users increased their time spent the most compared with users of other subscription OTT video services.

Those who watched via broadcast’s on-demand channels or subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) totaled 67.0% and 61.6%, respectively. Smartphones Fuel Digital Growth, but ‘Other Connected Devices’ Enter the Mix. Many people across Europe were holed up at home for long periods of time through 2020. Thus, media consumption spiked dramatically.

US consumers will form new patterns of device use as pandemic norms become habits that are here to stay. This includes usage of mobile and other devices returning to pre-pandemic growth levels. Our forecast for time spent with mobile, connected TV, and other devices show businesses where they should invest.

Time spent on AVOD services grew dramatically in 2021. TVision reported that from May 2020 to May 2021, US time spent watching AVOD increased 200%. While the AVOD increase happened from a relatively small base, it compared with a 100% increase in time spent watching subscription VOD (SVOD) and a 13% decrease in TV time spent.

OTT and Subscription OTT Users. Theme: Growth. OTT and subscription OTT user numbers will track consistently above our pre-pandemic forecasts, but their growth trends won’t be identical.

These time spent forecasts showed the biggest positive shifts compared with our pre-pandemic estimates:. Time Spent with Smartphones. Smartphone time spent among adults was in line to tick up to 2:40 per day, but instead it will leap to 3:06. That’s almost 26 unexpected additional minutes per day staring at our phones. Time Spent with Subscription OTT Video Services.

Gaming is a key component of Netflix’s lofty franchise goals: On its own, gaming can help Netflix increase time spent. But it’s especially valuable in its push to build popular properties into full-fledged multimedia “universes.”