"As TV-​connected devices become commonplace in U.S. homes more consumers are choosing to rent and purchase digital movies. As of August 2018, 61 million households in the U.S. had at least one internet-​connected TV, video game console, Blu-​ray Disc player or streaming media player, representing year over year growth of three million homes, according to The NPD Group. Specifically, households with an internet connected TV increased 20% and those with streaming media players grew 17 percent. At the same time, digital movie purchase and rental transactions increased 19% in the first half of 2018."

“'Growth in digital movie transactions is being driven, in part, by access to TV-​connected devices as an increasing number of viewers can simply buy and rent movies right in their living room,' said John Buffone, executive director, industry analyst, NPD Connected Intelligence. 'While greater access begets consumption, certain digital movie providers facilitate ownership over renting.'”

Movie lovers are always on the lookout for the next film to watch. That may be why, within the last six months, 55.6% of Smart TV Users have used a search engine to research a product or service they were considering for purchase, according to AudienceSCAN. They're also 17% more likely than other adults to find advertisements on social media useful to them, and are active on social networks such as Facebook (83%), YouTube (63.3%) and Instagram (46.7%).

"Among the top five digital movie providers, iTunes users have the highest propensity to buy over rent, because Apple’s movie consumers are more affluent and more apt to collect movies. In the 12-​months ending August 2018, nearly one-​quarter (24%) of iTunes movie transactions were motivated by a desire to build a digital collection, leading to more buying than renting, according to NPD’s VideoWatch Digital service. Vudu customers were also more ownership focused than the average video consumer, as such 20% of transactions were motivated by collecting. In contrast collecting movies only drove 13% of Amazon Video digital movie transactions, 9% of Google Play movie transactions, and 4% of Microsoft Store movie transactions."

“'It’s long been known that collectability drives ownership and that’s no difference in the digital era,' Ricardo Solar, president of media entertainment for NPD. 'Movie fans will always want to own great films, as such, provider agnostic services like Movies Anywhere are critical for enabling digital sales growth.'”

Digital movies can be advertised to Smart TV Users a number of ways. For example, last year, 54.2% of these consumers took action after receiving an email ad, according to AudienceSCAN. In that same amount of time, 51.6% were driven to action by either a text ad or an ad they saw on their mobile smartphone apps. They're also 25% more likely than other adults to click on text link ads on websites, and, last year, 66.5% were driven to action by TV commercials.

AudienceSCAN data is available for your applications and dashboards through the SalesFuel API. Media companies and agencies can access AudienceSCAN data through the AudienceSCAN Reports in AdMall.