TV Everywhere (sometimes called authenticated streaming) is the entertainment industry’s clunky term for a business model where broadcasters (chiefly the cable networks) allow customers access to content through Internet-connected devices—tablets, smartphones, PCs, set-top boxes.
It’s not YouTube. It’s not user-generated. It’s not free.
But it’s often where you have to go to see the best shows, and it’s growing rapidly—up 63% in the last year, according to an Adobe study of 159 billion online video starts released Friday.
“TV everywhere is a juggernaut,” says Adobe’s Tamara Gaffney. “It’s coming whether the market is ready or not.”
This is the business Apple is set to re-enter in a big way next Wednesday with a new version of Apple TV.
The chart below is based on Adobe’s analysis of 1.49 billion TV Everywhere authentifications in Q1 and Q2 2015. Between the iPad, iPhone, Mac, Apple TV and iPod Touch, Apple captured 61.9% of these viewers.
Among the other findings in the study:
- TV Everywhere viewers are voracious; they watch a lot of TV
- Connected set-top boxes (from Apple, Roku, Google, Amazon and others) are taking share from tablets and smartphones
- These devices are particular popular among younger viewers (so-called Generation Z)
.
“The next 12 months will be critical,” Gaffney told Fortune. “Those who win will have a brand advantage that could last for a long time.”
Link: Adobe Digital Index
Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple (AAPL) coverage at fortune.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.