TV viewing trends require measurement changes, says ARF

ARF said that its most recent DASH 2023 TV Universe Study showed 6% of US households now watch television wholly on mobile devices, primarily younger viewers.

This meant that TV audience measurement needed to shift to all households that consumer television signals, rather than focusing on those that own television sets.

Paul Donato, chief research officer at the ARF, said: “The trend toward TV access exclusively on mobile devices shows no signs of letting up, particularly because younger households drive the trend.

“Not surprisingly, younger households are behind many of the dynamics changing the shape of TV, as highlighted in the DASH 2023 report.”

The DASH report is run annually in collaboration with NORC at the University of Chicago and a technical committee, and is carried out online, in-person and by phone based on a national probability sample of more than 10,000 adults.

The report also found that advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) services more than doubled in 2023 from 17% to 45%, while subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) fell back from 79% to 72%.

Netflix password sharing restrictions also seemed to work, according to ARF, with the percentage of Netflix accounts shared with outside relatives dropping from 36% in 2022 to 28% in 2023, and with friends from 13% to 9%.

Younger households were more likely than older households to add subscriptions and shift tiers within services, but older households were more likely to cancel services (especially SVOD) outright.