A new research report from consumer market researcher GfK says U.S. Netflix users watch 10 shows per week on the platform -- as well as four movies -- during a seven-day period.
The researcher says this is double the level -- five shows a week -- from a similar survey conducted three years ago.
Netflix has some 36 million U.S. subscribers. And GfK says when this is projected out to the full population, the average U.S. consumer watches five TV shows and two movies per week using Netflix on one or more platforms.
Netflix viewing on mobile devices has also more than doubled in three years -- with 24% of regular Netflix users viewing via one or more mobile platforms in the past month. This is up from 10% three years ago.
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At the same time, monthly Netflix viewing on TVs has risen to 47% to 36%; viewing on laptop/desktops is now 25% from 17%.
GfK says 25% of regular Netflix users “binge” view — watching three or more programs in one sitting, either “often” or “all the time.” Young 13-35 viewers are the biggest bingers, with 31% of those viewers reporting this behavior.
Assuming this is correct, the findings, once again, confirm our estimate that the average Netflix subscriber, as an individual, consumes roughly 50-55 minutes of its content per day. Old Nielsen data, suggests that this amount of usage is, indeed, higher, than it was 3-5 years ago, however, it appears to have leveled off.
Projected nationally, however, this means that the average U.S. adult watches only 15-16 minutes of Netflix fare per day---or roughly 5% of his/her total viewing day. We are preparing a very interesting report on Netflix streamers and what else, aside from Netflix content, they watch, for our upcoming annual, "TV Dimensions 2016", due out in January. More on this later.
This also indicates continued erosion of cable and broadcast ratings as the consideration set for TV channels is unlikely to grow from the 17+ it has been since 2008 despite a 50% increase in the average number of available channels. Most likely some broadcast and cable nets/programs will be removed from consideration sets as Netflix and its compeers and the several channels available on the SVOD platforms replace them.
Dorothy, the 17 channels figure is a very misleading stat. Actually, a typical adult samples many more channels than this over the course of a TV season, but this, too, is misleading as only a handful of channels are viewed with great frequency. Also, TV's heaviest viewers---the heavy "quintile" ---account for 40-45% of all viewing. How many channels do they watch and really like? Probably a lot more than the "average person", who, as we know, doesn't realy exist