Press Release

New Research From FreeWheel Shows Connected TV is a Mature Platform that Consumers are Viewing More Like Linear Television

June 11, 2020

NEW YORK – June 11, 2020 – Today, FreeWheel, A Comcast Company (Nasdaq: CMCSA), released a new Signature Insights whitepaper titled “The Power of CTV: Audiences and Engagement.” FreeWheel developed this report as a follow-up to a 2017 paper on the topic, with the focus now on how the Connected TV (CTV) channel has grown and changed in the past three years.

No longer an emerging technology, CTV today is a destination for premium video viewing, which the report shows is transforming the way content is distributed and monetized. FreeWheel found that like traditional television, CTV today attracts viewers who are eager to invest a significant amount of time in their content of choice: In Q1 2017, only 36% of CTV visits lasted more than an hour; for comparison, in Q3 2019, 61% of CTV visits lasted over an hour.

“The results of FreeWheel’s latest Signature Insights report show that CTV is now a mature platform,” said David Dworin, Vice President, Advisory Services, FreeWheel. “The viewing patterns we’re seeing on CTV are mirroring what we’ve historically seen in linear TV, suggesting viewers are turning to new ways to watch their favorite shows. For advertisers, this represents an opportunity to tell their story to viewers they have not reached on other channels.”

FreeWheel found that CTV viewing follows similar time patterns as traditional TV viewing, suggesting that audiences now consider CTV as more than an occasional supplement to linear TV. For instance, a chart in the report shows that for all CTV device groups, ad consumption (and by proxy, viewing) rises gradually during the day and reaches a high during peak primetime, 8-10 p.m., replicating the same patterns as linear TV.

The report also outlines the value of CTV for advertisers. For example, it shows that CTV’s average ad completion rate is 97%, indicating high engagement from viewers across connected devices. CTV also offers one of the highest authentication rates of any digital platform: FreeWheel’s research reveals that 68% of ad views are generated by viewers that have logged in, with that number even higher (90%) for Smart TVs in particular.

This analyses in this report are based on a sample of U.S. FreeWheel clients representing over 95% of CTV-driven digital ad views in FreeWheel’s broader research data set.

To read the full report, click here.

 


 

About FreeWheel
FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, empowers all segments of The New TV Ecosystem. We are structured to provide the full breadth of solutions the advertising industry needs to achieve their goals. We provide the technology, data enablement, and convergent marketplaces required to ensure buyers and sellers can transact across all screens, across all data types, and all sales channels, in order to ensure the ultimate goal – results for marketers.

With offices in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Paris, Beijing, and across the globe, FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, stands to advocate for the entire industry through the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. For more information, please visit freewheel.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Meredith Fitzgerald
215-970-8504
Meredith_Fitzgerald@comcast.com

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