Adam FlomenbaumWith May 20 marking National Streaming Day (who knew?), Roku this week released results from a survey showing how viewers make streaming decisions.
As a whole, people are more confident and comfortable making TV recommendations (29%) than they are restaurant (16%) and travel (7%) recommendations. Perhaps even more interesting is that people rather watch what their friends recommend than what their significant others do. 44% of viewers in the U.S. trust content recommended by friends, while only 19% trust content recommended by significant others.
“Americans seem to be viewing more content than ever before,” said Abby Reyes, streaming expert at Roku. “Before the advent of streaming, viewing decisions were limited more by scheduling, locality and familiarity. Now, we trade recommendations with a vastly wider circle to help us find what to watch. Although we love our spouses, we’re not always in love with what they want to watch. Instead, we may look to those who have a similar sense of humor to help us choose our next movie or TV show.”
Additional findings from the survey:
- Humor unites us: When it comes to movie and TV show recommendations, 60% of people looked to those with a similar sense of humor versus 31% with the same political and economic social views, 18% of the same gender or 17% from the same town.
- Commercials reign supreme… even for millennials: Sixty percent of respondents said commercials suggesting television content influenced what they watch. Facebook posts were next, with 43% followed by Twitter (20%) and Snapchat (13%). Even millennial respondents aged 18-34 were more influenced primarily by commercials (59%), and followed closely by Facebook (56%), Twitter (29%) and Snapchat (24%).
- TV shows are more commonly recommended than travel tips and restaurants: Respondents were more apt to share recommendations on TV shows (29%) and movies (25%) more than restaurants (16%) or travel (7%).
- People value time alone: Thirty seven percent of people said watching a movie or TV show alone provided valuable “me time.” Other reasons for watching alone included needing to focus on a TV show or movie (27%), embracing the guilty pleasure of a TV show or movie (13%), or because the content was often inappropriate for kids (5%).
- “How You Doin?” ranks the #1 favorite TV quote: Twenty percent of respondents chose this popular Friends quote as their favorite – two decades since being on the air. Nostalgia continued to dominate with “D’oh!” from The Simpsons (12%) and “No soup for you!” from Seinfeld (12%), which took the second and third spots.
- “May the force be with you” ranks the #1 movie quote: Seventeen percent of respondents chose this time-honored Star Wars quote as their favorite, followed by “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” fromGone with the Wind (11%) and “Go ahead, make my day” from Sudden Impact (11%).
The survey was conducted online by Macro, Inc. using a Cint panel from April 24 to May 1 among a cross section of 1,068 adults aged 18-65 in the United States.
Grace LeDuc
