Despite the growing wealth of content options available to consumers, few rival the influence of live sports, as evidenced by the boom in NFL viewership this season, which culminates with Super Bowl LVI on Feb. 13, 2022. And while consumers have been watching professional football on TV for decades, connectivity is playing an increasingly important role in how they watch today, as 28% of all U.S. TV households now use broadband connections for their TV viewing.
Rumah yang hanya menggunakan broadband (BBO) merupakan jenis rumah yang paling banyak memotong kabel-rumah yang menerima program TV tanpa akses ke layanan kabel atau satelit tradisional (jenis lainnya menggunakan antena fisik, biasanya antena digital untuk mengakses program). Secara keseluruhan, 44% rumah tangga telah memotong kabel atau tidak pernah memiliki layanan kabel atau satelit tradisional (tidak memiliki kabel). Lima tahun yang lalu, 81% rumah tangga TV di AS mengakses konten TV melalui TV kabel atau satelit.
While the shift is a clear indicator of how Americans are changing the ways they consume content, BBO households are leading the charge where sports are concerned, especially during this yearโs NFL playoffs. In fact, viewers 25-54 in BBO homes across LPM+PPM markets accounted for 17%-18% of the TV audience for the divisional playoff games on Jan. 22 and 23. Fast forward a week to the Conference Championship and that number was just under 20%. Comparatively, between Jan. 6 and Jan. 23, viewers 25-54 in BBO homes accounted for approximately 10% of the non-sports programming on the three networks that carried the divisional and conference championship playoffs. But BBO homes are interested in more than just professional football. Last year, for example, persons 25-54 in BBO homes made up 11% of all NBC Olympic viewing minutes.
In addition to highlighting the importance of sports programming to BBO homes, the data also illustrates how BBO homes use their connectivity for much more than just streaming movies from over-the-top services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. Itโs true that connectivity has driven massive growth in content that Americans are streaming, especially during the pandemic, but broadband usage was growing among U.S. households well before COVID-driven lockdowns began. And that growth is accelerating.
In January 2022, more than 83% of U.S. homes had at least one TV connected deviceโthatโs up 10 percentage points from January 2020 (74%). And while increasing connected TV device penetration has also fostered the growth of broadband-only (BBO) homes in the U.S., which now account for 28% of all TV households, penetration in some markets is higher than 36%. Importantly, BBO isnโt just prominent in major city-anchored DMAs. In fact, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently announced new funding of as much as $1.2 billion through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to expand broadband access in 32 states. Through this funding, 23 providers will bring broadband service to more than 1 million locations.
Meskipun pengumuman FCC berbicara tentang investasi di masa depan, kita sudah dapat melihat dampak dari konektivitas broadband di pasar yang secara khusus lebih kecil daripada kota-kota besar seperti Los Angeles, New York dan Chicago. Faktanya, ketika kita melihat jumlah penonton pertandingan playoff divisi dan kejuaraan, DMA teratas untuk pemirsa BBO secara khusus lebih bersifat pedesaan daripada New York dan Los Angeles.
Di tengah-tengah semakin banyaknya pilihan media, internet broadband telah memantapkan dirinya sebagai sarana untuk mengakses berbagai konten video-bukan hanya program dari layanan streaming. Faktanya, rumah tangga TV yang menerima program TV melalui koneksi broadband sekarang melebihi jumlah rumah tangga yang menerima program TV melalui antena over-the-air (rumah khusus siaran). Program olahraga selalu menjadi pendorong utama untuk menonton sesuai jadwal, tetapi keterlibatan yang dramatis dengan konten olahraga menunjukkan bahwa bahkan rumah tangga yang lebih cenderung mengonsumsi konten sesuai jadwal akan menonton program terjadwal jika itu adalah program yang mereka cari.
