• Viewer trends are slowly starting to level off in streaming after a disruptive year in the COVID-19 pandemic. And one trend looks to be holding true: the resumption of a secular decline in broadcast and cable viewing.
• But that is leaving room for ongoing healthy growth in connected devices. A State of Viewership report from Samba TV indicates the top two platforms in terms of total impressions are Roku Inc and Amazon.com.
• Roku impressions are up 27% from Q1, and Amazon up 49%. Comparing them to Q4 2020, Roku is up 118% and Amazon up 204%.
• Contrast that with cable (down 25% from a year ago) and broadcast television (down 19% over that span). Those drops were more muted vs. 2019 for cable (cable -7% vs. Q2 2019, broadcast -12%), suggesting that "cable networks are stabilizing to pre-pandemic levels more readily than broadcast after spikes during the height of the pandemic-related lockdowns."
• And this most recent streaming health isn't evenly distributed. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. connected devices, third in overall impressions, saw the same 27% Q/Q gain as Roku, but are up only 31% from Q4. And Apple device impressions declined 6% from last quarter (up 18% from Q4), and impressions from Alphabet devices like Chromecast fell 49% Q/Q and 51% from Q4 2020.
• Among other insights in the report: The top three advertisers in the U.S. were networks themselves - in order, NBC(NASDAQ:CMCSA), Discovery, and Viacom CBS, ahead of heavy advertisers like Liberty Mutual insurance, Geico, Domino's Pizza and T-Mobile.