LONDON—A new survey highlights just how important media consumption has become—with consumers in the U.K. and U.S. now spending almost 11 hours a day consuming media—and just how diverse and fragmented those habits are.

An Ampere Analysis study finds the average consumer in those markets spends more time consuming media than sleeping or working, and that consumers are increasingly selecting from a rich menu of media depending on their mood, age and needs.

“Today’s consumers have more varied media diets than ever before, selecting from an expanding menu of media depending on what they want in the moment,” Ampere Research Manager Sam Nursall said. “Whether they're looking to relax, discover something new or simply fill spare time, each medium serves a different purpose. That's today's attention economy. For advertisers and broadcasters, understanding those different moments is just as important as understanding the audience itself.”

Key findings include:

• The average U.S. or U.K. adult spends 11 cumulative hours engaged with media products every day. This includes overlapping activities, such as using a phone while watching TV or streaming.
• Streaming services (1:57), social media (1:46) and YouTube (1:35) attract the highest levels of daily media engagement.
• Consumers build their media diets around different moods and needs. Streaming services are most often used for relaxation and immersion, YouTube for discovery and lifting users’ mood, while social media is used to relieve boredom or provide distraction.
• Media diets also differ by age. Gen Alpha (age 11–15) spends the most time on YouTube (1:45) and gaming (1:56), while Gen Z (16–29) spends the most time on social media (1:54) and music services (1:20). Generation X and Baby Boomers spend relatively more time with streaming services, TV channels and live sports.
• Consumers in the U.S and U.K. access an average of 11.5 media platforms every week, including pay TV, streaming services, social media, music streaming, gaming and broadcaster VOD. Streaming services like Netflix or Disney+ account for 4.1 of these services per week. Gen Alpha accesses an average of 13.6 platforms, the highest of any age group.
• Mobile devices have expanded where media is consumed. More than half (55%) of music streaming users regularly listen outside the home, alongside 34% of podcast listeners, 20% of social media users and 11% of gamers.
• Mobile devices have also driven higher daily media engagement by making simultaneous media use easier. In the U.S. and U.K., for example, more than one-quarter (28%) of Netflix users regularly watch the service on a smartphone.
• One-third (33%) of YouTube users said they use the platform when they “want something on in the background.”

The Ampere Analysis “Attention Economy” survey was fielded in the U.S. and U.K. among respondents aged 11 to 64.

LONDON—A new study from Ampere Analysis highlights a pain point for consumers as streaming services push to increase profits—audiences are waiting longer than ever for the return of their favorite original shows.

The average gap between seasons of scripted originals has almost doubled from 12 months in 2020 to 21 months in 2025, according to Ampere.

The U.K. researcher also found that while audiences remain loyal to hit titles such as Apple TV’s “Severance” and Netflix’s “Wednesday,” longer waits could fuel more subscriber churn if platforms fail to keep viewers engaged.

At the 2022 height of the streaming boom, the study found, major platforms released some 599 seasons of scripted original shows, compared to a combined 591 from 2015 to 2019.. But the demand for high-end, blockbuster-style content has significantly extended production timelines. In 2020, major SVOD platforms took an average of 12 months to release new seasons of original scripted shows. By 2025, the average wait had almost doubled to 21 months.

"Many original shows build highly dedicated audiences that remain loyal despite increasingly long waits between seasons,” Ampere Senior Analyst Christen Tamisin, said. “However, streamers need to balance blockbuster production timelines against a steady flow of content. Extended gaps may generate anticipation around flagship titles, but they can also encourage audiences to cancel subscriptions and return only when major shows are back on screen."

Other key findings include:

• Original shows with gaps of over 30 months between seasons have achieved the highest engagement in the premiere month of the new season. Shows including Apple TV’s “Severance” and Netflix’s “Wednesday” generated almost twice the average engagement levels despite lengthy waits between seasons.
• Genre matters. Sci-fi and fantasly titles, often involving complex, high-budget productions, perform strongly despite long waits between seasons. By contrast, comedy audiences are less willing to tolerate extended gaps, while crime and thriller content performs consistently across a range of release patterns.
• The long gaps between seasons may actually lead to higher engagement. Existing audiences often rewatch earlier seasons to refresh their memories, while new audiences continue discovering shows during the gap between releases.
• Viewing of Netflix megahit “Stranger Things” rose by 300% in the second half of 2025 ahead of the release of its fifth and final season. Particularly strong viewing for Season 1 suggests both new viewers discovering the series and existing fans revisiting earlier episodes.
• Despite strong engagement around returning shows, long gaps create risk. In Q1 2026 in the U.S., 54% of respondents said they would be likely to cancel a service subscription if they were not using it often enough. Long waits between seasons leave streaming platforms vulnerable to churn and encourage audiences to subscribe only when their favorite shows return.

LONDON—New research from Ampere Analysis shows that HBO Max has the largest bundling footprint among streaming services across 20 major global markets.

“HBO Max’s strong bundling footprint reflects the continued importance of operator relationships in streaming distribution,” explained Jaanika Juntson, research manager at Ampere Analysis. “As competition between platforms intensifies, partnerships with telcos, pay TV providers and other streamers are becoming an increasingly important tool for expanding reach in saturated markets. For streaming platforms, these partnerships provide an important way to reach new audiences while reducing subscriber acquisition costs as well as aiding retention.”

Across the 20 markets tracked by Ampere Analysis, HBO Max leads the streaming bundling landscape, with a total of 60 unique bundle partners spanning pay TV, telcos and other streaming platforms. This is followed by Disney+ (52), Netflix (47), Apple TV (27), and Amazon Prime Video (26), highlighting the importance of partnerships in streaming services’ distribution strategies.

HBO Max also leads streamers in terms of the scale of its partnerships, featuring in 303 packages with partners, ahead of Disney+ (289), Netflix (263), Apple TV (174) and Amazon Prime Video (161).

The bundling landscape and the ranking of streaming services by bundle partnerships differ across regions. In North America, Disney+ features in the most bundles, while Netflix leads in Western Europe. Meanwhile, HBO Max’s partnerships are concentrated in Central and South America and Central and Eastern Europe, reflecting the service’s legacy distribution model in these regions. Brazil, the US and Poland host the largest number of HBO Max bundles, with 30 different bundle partners across the three markets.

A significant number of HBO Max partnerships take the form of ‘hard’ bundles, which account for 44% of the service’s partnerships. Ampere defines hard bundles as packages in which the streaming service is included as a fixed component and cannot be disaggregated. Examples include the upcoming HBO Max bundle with Sky Ultimate TV in the UK.

More information is available here.

LONDON—A new study highlights the growing importance of video podcasts for both media companies and consumers with data showing that video podcasts are rapidly going mainstream. An Ampere Analysis survey finds that one in five internet users are now watching them on social platforms and that YouTube is the most popular platform.

Their rapid growth highlights the increasing strategic importance of video podcasts as platforms invest in cost-effective formats to drive engagement and compete for audiences, the researcher reported.

Daniel Monaghan, Senior Research Manager at Ampere Analysis, explained that “As platforms vie for time spent, lower-cost long formats become increasingly appealing. Video podcasts offer these by providing easy viewing akin to linear chat shows. Netflix’s recent deals with Spotify and Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger highlight the growing importance being placed on this format by major players, especially as they look to take on YouTube’s dominance.”

Key findings from the study include:

• 20% of Internet users globally watched video podcasts on social video platforms in the past month (Q3 2025).
• YouTube is the go-to platform for video podcasts, with 11% of Internet users having watched one on its service in the past month. TikTok is proving popular for clips.
• Those aged 18-34 are 24% more likely than average to have watched a podcast.
• Audiences who watch video podcasts are also more engaged with the audio versions. 60% of podcast viewers also listen at least a few times a week, compared with 36% of Internet users on average.
• Video podcasts are particularly popular in mobile-first markets such as Brazil, India, Indonesia and Malaysia, but 20% of Internet users in markets such as Spain, the US and Canada are now also engaging.

The data is from Ampere's Media Consumer survey, which runs biannually across 30 global markets and samples 56,000 Internet users aged 18 to 64 per wave.

LONDON—Investment in media content production worldwide will reach $255 billion in 2026, rising 2% year-on-year, according to new forecasts from Ampere Analysis.

The researcher said growth continues to be driven by sustained investment from global streaming platforms, which are further increasing their share of content spend. While overall growth remains modest, this continued shift is widening the gap with traditional broadcasters, as ongoing advertising pressures impact their ability to increase content investment.

The report finds:

• Global streaming platforms remain the primary driver of growth in content investment. Ampere Analysis forecasts that ad-funded and subscription-based streamers will spend $101 billion on content in 2026, representing around two-fifths of total global content spend.
• Traditional broadcast models face a more constrained outlook. Ampere expects pay TV, commercial broadcasters, and public broadcasters to see stagnant or declining content investment, reflecting ongoing pressure on advertising revenues and rising production costs.
• The divergence between global streamers and local broadcasters continues to widen. While international streaming services scale investment, local broadcasters face increasing challenges sustaining content output amid rising costs, ongoing advertising pressure, and shifting post-pandemic viewer behaviour. In the US, commercial broadcasters are reducing spend as studio parent groups redirect budgets to their owned streaming platforms. In contrast, broadcasters outside the US show slightly better resilience, maintaining their investment levels through 2026.
• Major global sporting events, including the football World Cup and Winter Olympics, will provide a boost to content spend in 2026. Historically dominated by broadcast television, streaming platforms continue to expand their sports strategies, with platforms such as Amazon Prime Video securing major NBA rights through 2026.

“Spend in 2025 was in line with Ampere’s expectations, marked by streamers overtaking commercial broadcasters for overall contribution to the content spend landscape for the first time,” said Peter Ingram, Research Manager at Ampere Analysis. “In 2026, we expect streamers to further build on this, seeing 6% growth in expenditure. The accelerating shift in content investment toward streaming underscores a structural rebalancing of the global TV market, with scale and reach emerging as the central competitive differentiators for operators to remain buoyant.”

LONDON—As TV sports rights become increasingly important for both broadcasters and streamers, Ampere Analysis predicts global investment in the genre will surpass $78 billion by 2030, an increase of 20% from 2025.

During this period, the U.S. will continue to drive the booming market, with the new NBA rights cycle starting in the 2025–26 season, alongside new MLB deals from 2029, pushing the market to more than $36 billion in 2030.

Globally, Ampere predicts investment in sports rights to grow 20% between 2025 and 2030

“Sports rights remain a reliable driver of value in media,” Dan Harraghy, senior research manager of sports at Ampere Analysis, said. “Major U.S. renegotiations will shape the next rights cycle—including the MLB and potentially the NFL—and these could push global spend even higher. At the same time, the growing involvement of global streaming platforms has the potential to reshape competition in European tenders, while new cricket rights deals in Asia will also increase in value. Together, these dynamics will lift worldwide spend to more than $78 billion by 2030.”

The researchers noted that further upside could come if the NFL renegotiates its current agreements. Although many existing deals run until 2034, the league believes its rights are undervalued. Ampere expects initial discussions to start as early as 2026. These could have a significant impact on global rights spend.

Europe will see steadier growth, up 17% from $18.3 billion in 2025 to $21.3 billion in 2030. While major sports properties in the region have faced downward pressure in recent rights auctions, Ampere expects the growing appeal of live sport to global streamers to ignite market competition in upcoming tenders. Major competitions such as the FIFA World Cup and the Winter Olympics will also drive value growth in 2030.

Rightsholders are already actively seeking to attract major streaming platforms to rights auctions. UEFA, working with rights agency Relevent, has secured deals with Paramount as part of its latest Champions League tender.

Ampere expects Asian rights spend to grow from $7.2 billion in 2025 to $9.9 billion in 2030. Indian cricket will be a key driver, with new deals from 2027—including for the Indian Premier League and ICC tournaments such as the T20 World Cup—driving strong value growth.

LONDON—A new Ampere Analysis study finds that familiar franchises are successfully driving kids’ TV consumption on Netflix and that the streamer's big bet on "Sesame Street" will fill an important gap in its programming as the popular “CoComelon” is set to depart Netflix in 2027.

“Franchises play an important role in the Children and Family genre because brand recognition not only helps build awareness for upcoming titles, but it also creates a sense of trust in the quality of the content—crucial for parents,“ Ampere Senior Analyst Christen Tamisin explained. “Netflix recognizes this and draws upon both established IPs and franchises while introducing new popular content from YouTube. The iconic franchise ‘Sesame Street’ will be a welcome addition to the Netflix catalog, providing quality programming for a key demographic with a high likelihood of engagement. The battle for kids’ attention is definitely on.”

As background, the researchers noted that with a steady flow of content, “Sesame Street’ has long been a mainstay of children’s entertainment. Despite its global success, however, its future looked uncertain when Warner Bros. Discovery chose not to renew its deal the Sesame Workshop.

Netflix stepped in to give "Sesame Street" a new global home, and according to the new research from Ampere, the partnership is likely to strengthen its popularity with kids and families.

Netflix launched a new season of Sesame Street on Nov. 10, and also offers more than 90 hours of back episodes.

More specifically, Ampere reported that:

• Familiarity delivers audiences: In children’s entertainment, franchises, established content, and popular IP consistently capture audience attention. Between H1 2021 and H1 2025, major US commissioners1 released over 400 TV seasons of kids’ shows derived from franchises, amounting to 47% of their scripted children and family TV commissions, more than any other genre. “Sesame Street” topped the list of kids franchises with 16 brand new seasons—four from the original show and 12 spinoffs. “Sesame Street” on Netflix will drive this further.
• Shows built on established IP perform well in the kids space: Titles built on familiar IP appear consistently in the U.S. Netflix daily Top 10 Kids’ Shows chart with high view counts, underlining how brand recognition and discoverability sustain audience engagement and loyalty. As a well-loved and highly recognizable brand, “Sesame Street” is likely to be a strong performer from this perspective.
• From YouTube to Netflix: To compete with long-established studios and TV networks, Netflix has previously relied on new media as a source of hit kids content. Some of the most viewed kids shows on Netflix (based on total-season views) in H1 2025 first launched on YouTube: “Cocomelon” (83.1 million views), “Ms. Rachel” (53.4 million views), and “Bebefinn” (29.9 million views). However, by acquiring such a longstanding TV brand in “Sesame Street,” Netflix is further establishing itself as a trusted mainstay of the TV market, akin to the networks it competes with, especially in the view of parents with young children.
• Retention opportunity: Although “Cocomelon” viewership has eased over time, it still ranks among Netflix’s top 10 shows across all genres. With "CoComelon" leaving for Disney+ in 2027, “Sesame Street” could help Netflix fill a key gap and sustain engagement in the preschool segment.

LONDON—As Hollywood jumps into the production of mini-dramas, a new study from Ampere Analysis finds that more than one in 10 internet users have watched drama episodes lasting 10 minutes or less on social media.

The firm’s annual global survey of over 100,000 consumers shows ‘micro-dramas’ and ‘mini-dramas’ gaining traction on social media, with YouTube and TikTok the leading destinations. As younger audiences spend more time with vertical short-form video on their phone, commissioners are using social platforms as distribution channels and as discovery funnels for premium apps such as DramaBox and ReelShorts.

Minal Modha, research director and head of sports media, sponsorship and consumer research at Ampere Analysis, explained that “Shorter scripted drama platforms are capitalizing on the increasing use of vertical videos customized for phone viewing, particularly among younger audiences. On average, internet users spend nearly 50 mins a day watching videos on social media, rising to over an hour for 18–34-year-olds. Thus, commissioners of mini- and micro-dramas can use social platforms in two main ways: first, show all episodes on services like YouTube and generate advertising revenue, or second, tease the content on TikTok or Instagram, before enticing audiences onto subscription apps such as DramaBox.”

Other key findings include:

• Younger skew. Viewers aged 18–34 are 21% more likely than the average viewer to have watched mini-dramas in the past month.
• APAC leads; Europe lags. Engagement is strongest in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines—reflecting mobile-first usage in these markets. In comparison, audiences in Europe are less likely than average to have watched in the past month.
• YouTube is the most popular destination for viewers, with 44% of those who have watched a mini-drama doing so on the platform.
• TikTok follows close behind at 38%.
• Top genres. Romance, Anime and Fantasy are the biggest draws and should be priority genres for future commissions.

LONDON—Movie fans hoping to save money by waiting until their favorite new films appear on streaming services will have to wait a bit longer now, according to a new report from Ampere Analysis.

In a new report released this week, the researcher noted that more than half (55%) of U.S. studio movies took 90 days or more to hit subscription streaming platforms in 2024. The 90-day new normal for big-budget films reflects studios’ revived strategy of encouraging US audiences back to movie theaters by delaying movie releases on streaming. With box office revenue down in key overseas markets like China and the possibility of tariff-related disruption on the horizon, studios are taking action to protect the box office at home, the researcher said.

Wide-release movies distributed domestically by the five major U.S. studios last year took an average of 87 days post-release in theaters to reach subscription streaming platforms, up almost 20% from 2022, when just over a quarter of such movies took 90 days or more to reach streaming, Ampere said. Sony Pictures Entertainment, the only major studio without a streaming service, maintained the longest average transactional window (106 days) via its U.S. Pay-1 licensing deal with Netflix.

Ampere cited the example of Sony’s 2024 release “Bad Boys: Ride or Die, or It Ends With Us,“ which made more than $100 million in box office revenue, as an example of how delaying the shift to streaming can succeed financially. It was released to Netflix months after its theatrical debut. Films that made less than $100 million domestically were more likely to debut earlier on streaming platforms, after a minimum of 90 days, according to Ampere.

In a year when studio theatrical schedules continued to feel the residual impacts of 2023 production delays, Universal retained the largest slate and broadest range of windowing strategies. Its movies reached Peacock anywhere between 49 days (“The Bikeriders,” “The American Society of Magical Negroes”) and 120 days after theatrical release (“Despicable Me 4”).

The Walt Disney Co., last year’s box-office leader, saw its average dragged down by lower-budget titles such as “The First Omen” (55 days) and “Kinds of Kindness” (63 days), according to Ampere. The rest of its franchise-heavy slate waited 98 days on average to be released to the studio’s streaming services, with “Deadpool & Wolverine,” “Inside Out 2” and “Moana 2” all dropping on Disney+ after more than 100 days.

Paramount Pictures was an outlier among the majors, sending movies to its streaming platform sooner than any other Hollywood studio. Paramount+ relied more heavily on its parent studio’s theatrical distribution slate to drive subscriptions and engagement relative to its rivals.

“By and large, studios have weaned U.S. audiences off the expectation that they need only wait a month or so for the latest blockbusters on streaming,” Ampere Research Manager Alice Thorpe said. “The domestic theatrical market was down 4% year-on-year in 2024 and remains somewhat fragile. Studio movies are still available for premium rental or purchase at home much earlier than was the norm pre-pandemic to maximize transactional revenues. But a key milestone is the fact that the majority of movies are now taking 90 days or more to reach studios’ subscription platforms. With box office revenue down in key overseas markets like China, and with tariff-related disruption potentially to come, studios are facing renewed pressure to protect the box office at home.”

Viewers in English speaking countries—including the U.K., US, Australia and Canada—are viewing more non-English language film and TV shows in recent years, according to a new study from Ampere Analysis.

Regular viewing of international (non-English language) TV shows and movies has increased by 24% since the first quarter of 2020, among 18 to 64-year-olds in those countries. More than half (54%) of Internet users in these markets claimed to watch non-English language content “very often” or “sometimes”—up from 43% since the start of 2020. This is despite titles from primarily Anglophone markets like the U.S. typically making up the bulk of global streaming libraries, Ampere said.

Korean TV shows and movies have seen a 35% rise in frequent viewing in English-speaking markets in the last four years. Frequent viewing is up from 16% of 18 to 64-year-olds to 22% over the last four years, with titles including Squid Game and Parasite driving awareness of the high-quality shows and movies produced in South Korea. Netflix in particular has increased spend on TV shows and movies produced in South Korea.

Foreign language content is particularly popular among 18 to 34-year-olds in English-speaking markets, with 66% of this age group regularly watching. However, growth is strongest among older age groups, with frequent viewing increasing by more than one-third among 45 to 64-year-olds in the last four years (up from 30% to 41%). The move towards foreign language content consumption by older consumers reflects growth in the adoption of streaming services, which offer greater volumes of international content than their broadcast counterparts.

When it comes to how viewers watch foreign language content, subtitling is most popular. More than one-quarter (28%) of people in English-speaking markets enjoy watching this way. In comparison, just under one-fifth (19%) enjoy dubbing.

The situation in non-anglophone markets is different, however, according to the researcher. While growth in interest in foreign language content is minimal, there is already a high baseline willingness to watch international content—with 88% of consumers regularly engaging with foreign-language TV shows or films.

The way foreign language content is watched also differs in some markets. In France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, there is a strong preference for dubbing, which is reflected in the availability of dubbed content in these languages on video services. Yet while certain markets show preferences for dubbed content, others—like the Nordic territories and the Netherlands—have a strong preference for subtitling. Ampere says this reflects a mix of the lower historical availability of TV shows and movies dubbed into local languages, but also—in many cases—strong English-language skills.

“The increased viewing of international programming in English-speaking markets shows that as content producers diversify production regions, viewers are ready and willing to transform their viewing habits,” said Annabel Yeomans, Research Manager at Ampere Analysis. “This offers multiple advantages for streamers facing economic pressures. They can investigate markets with lower production costs and focus on productions in newer streaming markets to grow subscriptions while catering to their existing subscriber base. Developments in AI technology for subtitling and dubbing make it easier than ever for platforms to offer TV shows and movies on a global scale.”

LONDON—2020 was a perfect storm to fuel streaming service growth, between the pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns and the launch of a number of major new streaming services. According to a new study by Ampere, that has resulted in the average U.S. household having four streaming services.

In a recent study evaluating the SVOD market in the U.S. and the “big five” Western European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K.), Ampere found that there were more than 400 million subscriptions to streaming services as of Q3 2020. While U.S. households average four SVOD platforms, European households average two. However, almost 10% are signed up for five or more.

This growth in SVOD popularity leads Ampere to predict that “compounding”—the action of combining and adding to—will characterize global TV for 2021.

With all of the new streaming services available, Ampere believes that compounding (or bundling) multiple services into packages is the next step in the evolution for the streaming market. More than just having all services available through a streaming device, Ampere believes that the combining and discounting of packages of streaming services will grow in the coming year.

Already in 2020 some compounding practices were put into place, as many new streaming services went with an advertising supported (AVOD) streaming model over subscription, or for services like Peacock, offered both a free AVOD plan and a premium subscription with no ads.

Specific areas that Ampere believes compounding will impact streaming business in 2021 include the supply chain, with the concept of international distribution to prioritize own-platforms for global rollouts accelerating in 2021; an acceleration of collaborative services, giving services a competitive edge in the ever growing streaming market; and an increase in content offerings within single streaming platforms, including non-niche streaming services looking to combine entertainment, drama, reality, documentary, news, kids and sports into single services.

“AVOD, studio-direct streaming launches, the strengthening of local and broadcaster-led streaming and the turbo boost that came out of the blue in the form of COVID-19 have brought the industry to a pivot point,” said Guy Bisson, research director, Ampere. “That pivot point will lead to a shift in thinking that will change the way content creators, distributors and content aggregators, platforms and channels think about streaming in the wider TV market. In 2021, compounding is here to stay in every portion of the streaming value chain.”

For more information, visit www.ampereanalysis.com.  

LONDON—Having already made a significant dent in the traditional pay-TV market, there is still a large amount of potential growth for SVOD services in major markets, according to a new study by Ampere Analysis.

Per its latest figures, Ampere estimates that there could be as many as 3 billion additional streaming subscriptions to be had, even as some territories are approaching what Ampere calls a “stacking ceiling.” This is based on the question of how many services an average household will sign up for.

The U.S. has the highest potential ceiling, with Ampere saying that the maximum number of SVOD services per household would be at eight. This is because even as many U.S. households cut the cord, they are continuing to spend the same amount on TV services per year as with pay-TV—around $900. This, Ampere says, means that the stacking behavior for households is based on entertainment budgets.

The ceiling is lower for other markets. In Europe, Ampere estimates the figure to be between two and five services per household. In Brazil, that number is an average of 1.5 per household. Growth in spending on TV outside of the U.S. is still occurring, per Ampere, but the rate of change is low—20%-30% over the next five years.

Another thing that will drive continued growth in SVOD services is the cost of the subscriptions. Lower average prices, driven by competition, will enable more services to be added while still meeting household’s budgets.

However, things that could slow growth is if high-demand content, like sports, certain TV shows and movies, remain on pay-TV.

Ampere finds though that the sweet spot that could see SVOD hit the potential 3 billion additional services is having two to four services per household; even being in the middle of the potential ceiling for the U.S. (four to five services) could allow for such growth.

“To make the most of this capacity, OTT players first need to demonstrate that they are a viable replacement for existing paid-for TV services,” said Daniel Gadher, research manager at Ampere. “This process is ongoing in the U.S. and Canada, but elsewhere in the world, pay-TV has remained resilient. But as U.S. studio content increasingly moves to the online world, the opportunity for new players to take a share of consumer entertainment spending, even in already busy markets, improves.”

For more information, visit www.ampereanalysis.com.

LONDON—The practice of borrowing an OTT account is occurring in one out of every seven online video households, according to research from Ampere Analysis.

“Borrowing,” as defined by Ampere, is anyone who says they are using a login for a subscription online video platform from someone outside their household. This can include platforms like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime Video, or sports streaming services and niche content services.

The amount of people borrowing accounts has been on the rise in the last year. Ampere’s findings show that as of the first quarter in 2020, the proportion of global internet users borrowing an account has risen from 8% to 11% year-over-year. This equates to about 70 million households borrowing accounts in 22 markets worldwide.

PLUS: OTT Market to Reach $167B by 2025

Homes in India are the biggest borrower, per Ampere, followed by the Netherlands and France; Japan is the lowest. Account borrowing in China, Indonesia and the U.K. is seeing the fastest growth.

A subset of borrowers have a particular interest in borrowing sports streaming accounts. Europe has a greater proportion of users of sports services like NBA League Pass and NFL Game Pass who are borrowing. Ampere says this is likely due to the seasonality of sports, or the habit of casual fans who feel they don’t watch enough to merit a subscription.

While Ampere says that account borrowers are more likely to be younger and students, it says that more than 50% have full-time jobs and household incomes on-par with the average consumer, meaning many of them have the ability to pay for these accounts.

Three-quarters of those who borrow account details subscribe to at least one subscription OTT service, while two-thirds have pay-TV as well. More than half of respondents told Ampere they wouldn’t mind paying extra for something that gives them exactly what they want. However, as more and more OTT services are offered with different content, Ampere can see the borrowing of accounts between families and friends becoming more prevalent.

“Subscription OTT players need strategies to respond to an increasingly saturated market and entice consumers with a finite budget for content to pay for their programming—even if that means changing tack and allowing them to dip in and out of subscriptions or for bite-size chunks of content,” said Minal Modha, consumer research lead at Ampere.

For more information, visit www.ampereanalysis.com.  

LONDON—If watching eSports was an Olympic event, China would be racking up gold medals. A new report from Ampere Analysis found that among China’s internet users, 26% are watching eSports at least once a month, which is significantly more than Western countries.

The leader in eSports viewing among Western countries is Denmark, which has 9% of its internet viewers watching eSports on a monthly basis. Sweden, the U.K. and France follow, with the U.S. just behind them at about 6%.

The big draw for eSports audiences, according to Ampere, has been high profile global tournaments. The 2019 Fortnite World Cup drew 20 million global viewers on Twitch; the FIFA 2019 eWorld Cup garnered 50 million global viewers across all platforms. China’s highest-watched eSports event was the League of Legends 2018 World Championship, which had an audience of 203 million in the country, compared to 2 million throughout the rest of the world.

The audience for eSports appears to growing among demographics, as Ampere’s study indicates. While the main demographic fo eSports is still males 18-34, females now make up 35% of viewers, while 40% are over 35 and 33% live with young children. China in particular is pretty well balanced, as 43% of its viewers are female.

As far as how viewers are watching eSports, Amazon’s Twitch platform is the most popular service among North American and European viewers, at about 65% usage among monthly viewers. YouTube trails with under 40%. Twitch has been able to build its popularity by hosting a variety of channels and having deals for third-party streaming rights for events.

“The rise of eSports viewing on a global scale presents a potentially lucrative opportunity for new and existing players,” said Hazel Ford, analyst at Ampere. “Platforms such as Twitch and YouTube are currently market leaders but face growing competition from a number of newcomers, including the developers themselves. As with the traditional sports world, exclusive rights deals will become crucial for platforms looking to control high growth eSports audiences.”

For more information, visit www.ampereanalysis.com.

LONDON—As consumers continue to manage their budget to figure out how to get access to all the content they want from streaming/video on-demand services, Ampere Analysis sees the AVoD market on the verge of significant growth to help satisfy their needs.

AVoD stands for Advertising supported Video on Demand and are often free services that feature ads mixed in with their content to draw revenue over subscription fees. At the start of 2020, only 3-6% of U.S. households use AVoD services, per Ampere, but the media analyst firm sees a surge on the way.

Examples of AVoD services include Crackle, Roku TV, Tubi, Vudu and Pluto. Roku TV is currently the most popular among U.S. consumers at 6% use. One of the reasons that Ampere believes that these services could see growth this year is because they offer access to older content that more popular streaming services may have lost access to.

Netflix’s catalog used to be largely based off content that was five years old or older—50% in September 2015. But between their focus shifting more toward original content and losing content to other SVoDs, as of September 2019 Netflix’s older content makeup fell to 35%. Many SVoDs are putting similar emphasis on original content.

AVoDs meanwhile are primarily using older content to stock their catalogs. Between Roku TV, Crackle, Vudu and Tubi, an average of 80% of their catalogs are content that is five years or older.

Ampere believes that as AVoD services continue to grow, advertisers spending for online video advertising will also see a spike. This will be helped by major players like Disney’s Hulu and NBCUniversal’s Peacock offering AVoD models in addition to SVoDs.

“AVoD is coming, and it’s going to make its mark on the Video on Demand landscape rapidly,” said Guy Bisson, director at Ampere. “It’s impact will be felt not just by the entertainment industry, but by advertising too as the shift that has already disrupted the subscription television market sweeps across the free-to-air sector.”

Bisson would go on to say that while AVoD services are following the proven path of using older content to build an interest, as they grow they may also begin to offer newer and even original content like some of their SVoD peers.

LONDON—Broadcast television networks are less likely to use “pilot” episodes to introduce new TV series, according to a report from Ampere, which compares the trend to OTT.

“The number of pilots ordered by U.S. broadcasters has decreased by one third (32%) over the last four years, dropping from 106 titles a year in 2015 to just 73 titles by 2019, despite the same number of new series being produced,” the research firm said. “Although the number of pilots has fallen, the proportion progressing to series has remained consistent, at 45%. U.S. networks seem to be adopting the strategies of the SVoD players where pilots are used far less, if at all.”

Although the trend has stabilized within the past year, Ampere researcher Fred Black thinks networks are adopting a variety of different strategies to make sure their programming can better compete with Netflix and Hulu.

“There’s no one model that the networks have adopted as they move away from pilots, rather they have opted for a range of development options, including reboots and spin-offs, co-production, remakes and straight to series,” he said.

In conclusion, it’s a combination of increasing production costs and the growing popularity of rebooted series—which don’t need pilots—that Ampere think are the overall reasons for the trend.

Drama series had the lowest number of pilots while comedies average the highest number of pilots, at 35 per season. The most successful genre in terms of pilots leading to series is crime and thriller; sci-fi is the worst performer in this category.

ABC is the leading proponent of using pilots, Ampere said.

LONDON—At least eight out of 10 users with internet connections in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia subscribe to a subscription video on demand service, according to a recent survey from Ampere.

The survey also revealed that the growth of sVOD subscriptions (i.e. Netflix, Amazon Prime) has picked up steam after plateauing between 2016 and 2018. While Europe is still behind the U.S. in terms of number of subscriptions overall, the rate of growth for both regions is “healthy,” Ampere said.

"The growth in SVoD subscribers in both regions will come as welcome news, particularly to those looking to enter the market this year such as Disney and Apple as it shows there is still room for growth and the opportunity to take a share of the revenue," said Minal Modha, consumer research lead at Ampere Analysis.

Saudi Arabia, Australia and Denmark showed the strongest growth in sVOD subscriptions, with France and Japan being the only countries surveyed where fewer than half said they subscribed to such a service. Subscription growth has stagnated in the Netherlands and Japan, Ampere said.