We sat down with Samsung Ads’ Global Head of Analytics & Insights, Justin Evans, to discuss some of the key findings from their recent Streaming Index report. And when discussing the difference between streaming and linear, one key number jumped out…

JUSTIN EVANS: One of the most interesting things that came out of this analysis for me was one number which helps us really understand the difference between streaming television and linear television.

And that number is 3.8.

3.8 is the number of apps that each one of our TVs, or each one of our users used in Q4. 3.8.

And if you compare that to the way people flip linear channels, that will be 10, 20, 30 channels they use per quarter.

In the streaming ecosystem, it's 3.8.

So what does that mean for the TV app marketer?

It means they have a really big awareness, opportunity and challenge. You have to build the awareness, unaided awareness to be one of those 3.8 for the audience. And then you bring them inside and now they can flip through the content. So it’s a real structural change between the streaming world and the linear world.

The last trend we observed in the data was that there's still lots of activity and opportunity in AVOD. The AVOD apps had above average new user percentages. Meaning, the number of users who were new to their app was relatively high. And AVOD apps also have relatively low retention rates. So below average retention rates.

To us, that means that in the AVOD space, a lot of audiences are trying out new apps. They are still experimenting with which ones they're going to stick with and be loyal to, which means there is a lot of opportunity and a lot of challenge for the AVOD apps as they establish a firm audience foundation.