LONDON—The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup is set to generate the highest sponsorship revenue in the competition’s history, with combined media rights and sponsorship revenues expected to exceed $6 billion, per research firm Ampere Analysis.

The expanded 48-team tournament, to be held June 11 to July 19 across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, has created significant opportunities for brand promotion, Ampere said. The United Kingdom-based research estimates that it will generate at least $3.8 billion in rights fee revenues and $2.4 billion in sponsorship revenues.

Much of that commercial growth has been driven by the U.S. role as a host nation, Ampere said, with the value of stateside media rights up 94% from the 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar. U.S.-based brands now account for more than half of World Cup sponsorship revenue, Ampere said.

“This edition of the FIFA Men’s World Cup is attracting record levels of sponsorship investment due to the increase in participating teams and the expanded number of matches,“ Chloe Ng-Triquet, analyst, sponsorship at Ampere, said. “Hailed as the ’biggest’ Men’s World Cup ever, brands have identified every opportunity to capitalise on innovative activations. With the additional hydration breaks during each game’s quarter, brands have more space to advertise. Despite no major sponsors for the events headquartered in Canada or Mexico, the U.S. houses some of the biggest brands globally, helping drive the sponsorship revenue to an all-time high.”

Ampere currently estimates media rights revenues for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup at $3.8 billion, up 22% from the 2022 tournament, with some deals still to be agreed for markets in Asia. Traditional linear broadcasters are still the dominant rightsholders, Ampere said, but streaming services are investing more in the competition. DAZN, for instance, will stream the World Cup in three major markets, Japan, Italy and Spain.

Ampere expects sponsorship revenues to reach at least $2.4 billion, a 37% increase from Qatar 2022. Spending is being driven by new sponsors such as DoorDash, Bank of America and ADI Predict Street, as well as historic sponsors like Adidas, Coca-Cola, and Visa. U.S.-based brands account for 52% of sponsorship revenue, up from 36% in 2022. No companies based in Canada or Mexico have signed on as sponsors yet.

“While we estimate that FIFA is currently under its target for media rights revenue for this Men’s World Cup, deals have yet to be confirmed for some markets in Asia,” Ampere Senior Analyst, Sports Media Rights Danni Moore said. “However, even without those agreements in place, the 2026 edition of the tournament is generating the highest media rights values FIFA has achieved to date as a result of growth across several markets. As the country with the highest investment in sports rights globally, the growth in the US market, driven by its role as one of the host nations, has had a considerable impact on the overall value of the 2026 event.”

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—Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters” has surpassed 1 billion viewing hours, cementing its title as the most-watched film on Netflix, according to new research from Ampere Analysis.

The kids’ movie was the most popular movie on subscription streaming platforms in 2025 and was declared “the most-watched film of all time on Netflix” last summer, when it surpassed “Red Notice” with 256 million views.

“KPop Demon Hunters” is one of the first streaming original films to break into a space dominated by the franchises of major studios like Disney and NBCUniversal, Ampere said. It is also a rare example of an original film reaching a level of cultural impact reserved for flagship series such as “Squid Game” and “Stranger Things.”

Ampere’s analysis revealed:

• Hit Children & Family titles have longer viewing lifecycles. “KPop Demon Hunters” reached peak weekly viewing in its 11th week after release. In comparison,Ampere’s analysis of the top 20 most-viewed Original films released onNetflix shows they usually reach peak weekly viewership in week one or two andengagement diminishes quickly.
• Netflix has reduced commissioning in the genre. Children & Family content accounted for 4% of Netflix’s total commissions during 2024-2025, down from 9% during 2022-2023.
• This reflects a broader streaming platform trend. SVOD platforms have the lowest share of scripted Children & Family commissions than any other content type. Globally, they accounted for just 13% of Children & Family commissions in 2025, versus 47% for traditional TV outlets such as public service broadcasters. Increased reliance on ad-supported tiers, where monetizing children’s content is complex, and the rise in popularity of platforms like YouTube are contributing to the SVOD pullback.
• Despite this, kids’ content remains a key subscription driver. Among households with children, 35% say having TV shows and movies their children want to watch is a key subscription motivator (Ampere Q3 2025 Media Consumer data).
• The Children & Family genre continues to deliver strong engagement. In H2 2025, it generated 4.4 billion views, second only to Crime & Thriller, according to Ampere’s analysis of Netflix’s global viewing data of movies and TV seasons.

“The film’s musical core extended its reach beyond the platform and encouraged repeat viewing,” Ampere Research Manager Joe Hall said. “Its themes, grounded in the global Korean cultural wave, helped build a highly engaged international fan base. With a sequel already announced, ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ shows there is still a lot of value in developing original IP that appeals across age demographics.”

LONDON—Global streaming subscription revenue surpassed $150 billion for the first time in 2025, according to new research from Ampere Analysis, marking a major milestone for the subscription OTT market.

That means subscription revenues have tripled since 2020 when they first hit $50 billion.

The report also highlighted the fact that while international expansion remains an important driver of the market, platforms are increasingly focusing on monetization through price increases and the rollout of ad-supported tiers, particularly in mature markets.

As ad-free subscriber numbers stabilize, hybrid subscription and advertising models are playing an increasingly important role in revenue growth, the researchers noted.

Total streaming revenue, including both advertising and subscription revenue, generated $177 billion globally in 2025. As adoption of ad tiers grows and platforms expand their ad loads, advertising is expected to become an increasingly important revenue stream, adding a further $42 billion in annual revenue by 2030.

Lauren Liversedge, senior analyst at Ampere Analysis, explained that “as the streaming market matures, the emphasis is no longer on pure subscriber growth but on extracting greater value from existing audiences. Price optimization and the rise of ad-supported tiers are driving revenue growth, particularly in the most competitive markets.”

Other key findings included:

• Global streaming subscription revenue grew by 14% in 2025 to reach a total of $157.1 billion, a milestone for the industry. The total has tripled in just five years, surpassing $50 billion in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The international expansion of global streaming services, the rollout of ad-supported tiers, and consistent price increases across major platforms have contributed to the increase.
• Subscription revenue is forecast to grow by a further 29% over the next five
• years, surpassing $200 billion globally by 2030.
• The US remains the largest driver of the sector, accounting for 50% of global streaming subscription revenue in 2025.
• Netflix is the largest contributor in the US market, with revenues up by 14% in 2025 following an across-the-board price increase at the start of the year.
• In more crowded markets such as North America and Western Europe, the next phase of expansion is increasingly driven by ad-tier subscriptions. Share of total revenue from these tiers has risen rapidly over the past five years, up from less than 5% in 2020 to 28% in 2025. This reflects the ongoing shift toward hybrid subscription and advertising business models.

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—Viewers who remember a time before YouTube existed are the biggest consumers of the platform’s movies and TV shows, according to a new report from Ampere Analysis.

The world’s most-used video platform began adding free theatrical releases to its menu in 2018 and added TV shows in 2022. This traditional programming has become more popular with middle-aged viewers, 35-64, according to the U.K. researcher, with nearly one in five (18%) users saying they watch full-length movies and TV shows on the platform. The findings reveal that older audiences are transforming global viewing habits, with 35-to-64-year-olds driving a surge in long-form, multigenerational viewing that is reshaping how audiences engage with film and television content online, Ampere said.

Approximately 85% of internet users now watch YouTube each month, according to Ampere Analysis’ latest global consumer tracker of 56,000 adults.

The researcher noted that households with children are another key driver of this viewing, suggesting that both parents and grandparents are increasingly tuning into YouTube for family viewing. Ampere calls these viewers of film and TV shows on YouTube “content super-consumers,” who engage with more genres than the general online population.

The share of internet users watching films and TV shows on YouTube varies widely in the 29 markets in Ampere’s survey. It’s 32% in India, 20% in Saudi Arabia, 15% in the U.S., 12% in the U.K. and falls to its lowest in Sweden at 7%.

A range of factors influences YouTube viewing uptake in each market. “In general, countries with fewer on-demand services and a weaker presence of broadcaster catch-up platforms see higher viewing of films and series on YouTube,” Ampere said.

Brazil and Mexico stand out in this regard, offering attractive distribution opportunities for content owners. These markets not only have large audiences for films and series on YouTube, but also report high levels of YouTube viewing on smart TVs, indicating a broad audience engaging with the platform to watch broadcast-style content in premium viewing environments.

“YouTube’s vast audience makes it an attractive partner for content owners seeking to monetise their catalogues and reach beyond their regular audience,” said Ed Ludlow, senior analyst at Ampere Analysis. “But that same scale means viewing behaviors vary widely across demographic groups — it’s crucial that content owners understand who they’re really engaging when distributing content on the platform."

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—Although it’s safe to say that live professional sports could not exist in its current state without television, a new report from Ampere Analysis raises questions about whether the TV industry can continue to afford skyrocketing sports rights in the U.S.

According to a new report from the research firm, spending on U.S. sports rights has surged 122% over the past decade, rising from $13.8bn in 2015 to $30.5bn in 2025. Over the same period, total TV industry revenues increased by just 24%, from $172 billion to $213 billion, meaning investment in rights has grown five times faster than the broader market.

Whereas a decade ago, broadcasters spent 8% of their revenue on sports rights, that figure has now jumped to 14% of total TV revenue, underlining the premium value of live sport as broadcasters battle for subscribers and viewer loyalty in an increasingly fragmented media landscape, Ampere said.

The sports picture in Europe is a bit more optimistic for broadcasters. In the U.K., sports rights spend has grown at twice the rate of TV revenues since 2015, and 1.6 times as fast in Spain. But in France and Germany, the growth of rights has largely stalled.

Between 2019 and 2025, TV revenue growth outpaced sports rights spend across all of Europe’s “big five” markets. The U.S. trend was the reverse, with rights spend rising at four times the rate of TV market growth. Ampere says this could be a result of European broadcasters taking a more cautious stance, reflecting declining viewership and ongoing challenges in driving subscriber revenue growth.

“As TV markets slow, sports rights inflation continues; the huge hikes in NFL and NBA deals demonstrate how live sports continue to deliver unique value as a driver of audience reach and retention,’ says Daniel Harraghy, Research Manager at Ampere Analysis. "By contrast, the more restrained approach in Europe reflects the tough economics of rights investment. Market differences are being driven by several factors, including longer-term rights contracts in the US, business models that place greater emphasis on affiliate fees and advertising rather than subscriptions, and a more competitive rights market.”

LONDON—A new survey puts a spotlight on the streaming behavior of 18-to-34-year-olds finds those viewers pay more for content than other age groups, but are more likely to churn if they fail to get what they crave, according to Ampere Analysis.

The Ampere study described the demographic’s subscription streaming behavior as “subscribe, stack, churn, repeat” and stressed that the survey data showed that younger viewers want more from SVOD streaming platforms than they currently get.

“The growing signs of indifference among young consumers towards subscription OTT services signals a need for platforms to rethink their position,” Isabelle Charnley, consumer analyst at Ampere Analysis, said. “While viewers subscribe to more SVOD services than ever, loyalty is increasingly reserved for a select few. Many turn to social media for quick, frictionless content to avoid decision fatigue. To stay relevant, streamers must either position themselves as lean, cost-effective complements to premium services, with a clear and defined role in the content stack or elevate their core value proposition to justify a higher price point. Players must deliver deeper, more consistent value through engaging content, flexible access, and a compelling user experience that keeps audiences coming back.”

Thirty-six percent of those thinking of dropping an OTT service cited cost as a factor, Ampere found. For young people, though, the research also showed access, variety and convenience as important features in a streaming service. The study also highlighted how streaming platforms can tap into the needs and expectations of this profitable audience to earn their loyalty.

Key findings included:

• Among consumers aged 18 to 34 at risk of churning from their streaming service, 36% cited cost as a factor in considering cancellation within the next 12 months.
• But this is not simply just a cost-conscious group: They subscribe to more streaming services than their average peer (4.2 vs. 3.3) and are also more likely to rent (+29%) or buy (+15%) films and TV.
• Instead this reflects a deliberate cycling behavior—young consumers are significantly more likely to subscribe, cancel, and resubscribe to video-on-demand services depending on whether appealing content is available. More than half (58%) reported this behavior, compared to a global average of 40%.
• When it comes to loyalty among young people, social media sets the standard. While 85% of 18-to-34-year-olds use a social video service daily, only 52% return to subscription OTT platforms each day—highlighting a clear engagement gap that premium streaming services have yet to close.
• For younger viewers, value for money is not just a question of price; they want access, variety, and convenience. 41% find value from a platform they can watch across multiple device types, 40% from bingeable series and 39% from a wide range of content.

This year will see a milestone in content spending, with new forecasts from Ampere Analysis predicting that global investments by streaming platforms will surpass commercial broadcasters for the first time ever.

Overall, the Ampere projections show a sluggish market for content investments in 2025, with the global content spend increasing by just 0.4% year-over-year to reach $248 billion. This follows 2% growth in content investment in 2024, driven by increased ad spend on the U.S. presidential election, the Paris Summer Olympics and the resolution of the 2023 Hollywood actor’s and writer’s strikes. In 2025, streaming services will overtake commercial broadcasters as the front-runners of global content investment, spending $95 billion on programming, according to Ampere.

The trend reflects an ongoing spending shift, with media companies increasingly focused on streaming and online audiences. Last year’s successful subscriber growth from password-sharing restrictions and key sporting events has positioned streamers to invest heavily in content this year, the report said.

Ampere’s predicted $95 billion spend by ad-funded and subscription-based services equates to 39% of total global content investment. However, the platforms are expected to ensure investment grows at a slower pace than revenue to maintain attractive profit margins, the researchers noted.

Meanwhile, commercial broadcasters are tightening their belts. U.S. commercial broadcasters are pulling back spending after a year of increased investment fuelled by the presidential campaign and the Summer Olympics. Beyond these one-off events, the decline in content spend reflects a broader trend seen over the past five years as broadcasters face ongoing advertising revenue challenges linked to linear viewing declines. Outside the U.S., commercial broadcasters continue to demonstrate resilience, maintaining their content investment throughout 2025.

“Spend in 2024 was in line with Ampere’s expectations,” Ampere Analysis Research Manager Peter Ingram said. “The recovery aided by the U.S. election, the Summer Olympics and the end of the Hollywood strikes met the limitations of macroeconomic challenges and ongoing focus on profitability from major streamers.

“In 2025, expenditure by VoD services will increase by 6%, making these companies the leading contributors to the content landscape, surpassing commercial broadcasters for the first time,” Ingram continued. “The continued growth of VoD spend, combined with the more cautious outlook of linear broadcasters, highlights the shifting role of traditional television as viewer demand turns to digital platforms and streaming.”

International expansion by U.S. streaming companies and improvements in controlling password-sharing will drive growth for online streaming subscriptions to 2 billion worldwide by 2029, according to Ampere Analysis. The researcher—which predicts streaming subscriptions will soon become the largest contributing segment to the global TV economy—estimates subscription streamers will generate almost $170 billion annually by then.

Ampere currently counts 1.8 billion subscriptions globally, which it said will increase to 2 billion within five years. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to see the largest increase in paid subscriptions, surpassing the increasingly saturated U.S. market.

The largest increase in paid subscriptions ever came in 2020, when pandemic-inspired stay-at-home orders resulted in 282 million signups, driving the total to more than 1 billion for the first time, Ampere said. Growth is expected to be slower over the next five years, though.

“Streamers will have to work hard to reengage growth in less-saturated markets, investing in marketing and locally relevant content, if they are to beat the 2 billion figure earlier than 2029,” the researcher said.

Subscription-streaming revenues are expected to grow almost three times faster than subscribers, with Ampere expecting growth to exceed 30% by 2029 as services focus on profitability and per-subscriber monetization. Netflix has led several initiatives to solidify long-term revenue growth in saturated streaming markets, the researcher noted, creating an ad revenue stream and tackling password-sharing, while Disney+ and Max have taken the bold strategy of bundling. By 2029, Ampere expects Netflix to have the largest share of paid subscriptions, growing from 14.4% to 29%.

Ampere predicts the ad-supported streaming segment will generate an additional $22 billion from sales as traditionally ad-free streaming services pivot to ad tiers. By 2029, Ampere expects the combined annual revenue of the global subscription streaming market (including ad tiers) will exceed $190 billion.

“The global streaming market is poised to generate $190 billion annually from two billion paid subscriptions by 2029,” Ampere Research Manager Maria Dunleavey said. “Key strategic developments, like Netflix’s account-sharing crackdown and cheaper ad-tier offer, and rivals Disney+ and Max’s aggressive approach to bundling, are driving revenue growth in saturated streaming markets. Targeting the untapped Asia-Pacific region is the most promising strategy for subscriber growth. To surpass current subscriber expectations, streamers must double down on strategic investments in less saturated markets. India was Netflix’s second-largest subscriber growth market in 2024, and the company has barely scratched the surface there in terms of growth potential.”

LONDON—Disney remains the world’s largest media company in a market where six companies now make more than half of the world’s TV and film content, according to a new report from Ampere Analysis. An estimated $126 billion will be spent on film and TV production this year, with Disney’s spending comprising 14% of that figure, fueled by its full acquisition of Hulu earlier this year, which added $9 billion to its total budget.

Since 2022, these six global media companies—Disney, Comcast, Google (YouTube), Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix and Paramount Global—have spent more than $56 billion in original TV and film content over the past three years, Ampere said, comprising 51% of the total content spend landscape, up from 47% in 2020.

In total, $40 billion of the $126 billion is currently spent on these six operators’ subscription streaming services (including Disney+, Peacock and Paramount+). Netflix is the top spender in streaming content, averaging $14.5 billion in annual investment in original and acquired content since the pandemic four years ago. Ampere expects the company to further grow its investment in 2025 through the acquisition of NFL and WWE rights.

Although it doesn’t fit the traditional studio model of the other five, Google’s YouTube is the third-most-popular streaming destination, according to Ampere, which attributed part of its continued success to partnership deals with major content owners.

Despite production shutdowns caused by the U.S. writers and actors strikes, streamers have continued to support the production landscape by pivoting towards more global strategies, Ampere said. International (non-U.S. originating) programming accounts for 40% of Paramount+’s and 52% of Netflix’s spend in 2024. Such content is typically cheaper to produce and effective in motivating new and niche audiences to subscribe to a platform, supporting revenues, Ampere said.

“Ongoing investment by major studios and streaming platforms into new programming will continue to be key to keeping audiences engaged and entertained,” Ampere Research Manager Peter Ingram said. “We can expect that the content landscape will see low-level growth in 2024 as production schedules recover from disruptions caused by the pandemic and the writers’ and actors’ union strikes. Looking forward, however, while these top six providers will continue to account for the majority of spend, overall growth will plateau as companies look to refocus their output. This will include limiting commissioning volumes and prioritising strategic investments and profitability to counter the current challenges of the media market.”

LONDON—Sports rights for televising NFL games remain by far the most costly of all U.S. sports rights, accounting for 44% of the entire sports broadcast rights spend in the U.S. Despite those costs, however, a new study by Ampere Analysis suggests they are certainly worth the cost for streaming services offering pay TV bundles and that the popularity of NFL football continues to play a key role in attracting new subs. 

A new report from Ampere Analysis looking at the impact NFL has on customer acquisition found that during the NFL season, starting in September and continuing through February, there is a 77% boost to customer sign-up for Virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (vMPVDs) carrying channels with NFL rights.

But if NFL rights remain the glue that is holding together the pay TV bundle, the study also found that the increasing number of NFL games being packaged as streaming exclusives is a threat to vMPVD services like Fubo and YouTube TV. As there becomes fewer games available on linear channels meaning, the vMPVDs will need to consider aggregating streaming services alongside traditional channels.

The study also found that during March to August (off-season) vMPVD services collectively received an average of 29,000 sign-ups per day since 2020. This increased 77% to 51,000 during the on-season (September-February), highlighting the impact of the NFL. 

Over the same period, streaming services without NFL games rose by just 2.5% during NFL seasons. The largest sign-up event for vMPVD services collectively was the 2023 Super Bowl on Fox, garnering 410,000 subscriptions in one day

Ben McMurray, research manager at Ampere Analysis explained that as "the most popular sporting event in the US, the NFL can be a powerful subscription driver for companies acquiring broadcast rights. It also has the power to drive significant viewership on free-to-air channels and inflate the overall TV market during the NFL season - and deflate it when the season ends. The biggest potential threat to vMPVD services in the future is the sale of games and packages as exclusives to streaming services. vMPVDs can thrive even without direct investment in the NFL, acting in a mutually beneficial way with broadcasters by extending the advertising reach of games. However, if the shift to streaming exclusives continues, vMPVD services will have to either invest directly in rights or provide access to streaming services as an aggregator to continue attracting subscribers.”

Other key findings include: 

• Starting in September and ending with the Super Bowl in February, the NFL is the most popular event in US. It claims 44% of the entire sports broadcast rights spend in the country. 44% of sports fans in the US say they enjoy the NFL, 43% of which say that it is their favourite competition
• For vMPVDs, and many other platforms carrying NFL games, the sign-up rate is consistently high throughout the season. The biggest sign-up drivers are the start of the season - for those who want to watch it in its entirety - and the Super Bowl - for those who want to see the competition’s biggest game 
• Many NFL games are available on free-to-air channels including NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox. These channels are carried by VPMVDs as well as many of the premium channels 
• vMPVDs are emerging in the US as consumers ditch cable. U.S. Pay TV penetration fell from a high of 84% in 2009 to 42% by the end of 2023
• Companies directly acquiring rights also use the NFL as a tool for generating sign-ups to their streaming platforms. Peacock’s exclusive playoff game generated just over 2 million subscriptions in one weekend. Paramount+ generated around 2.4 million sign-ups on the day of the 2023 Super Bowl.

LONDON—Consumers who subscribe to streaming services to watch a particular show, then cancel, only to resubscribe later, make up 42% of U.S. TV viewers, according to a new survey from Ampere Analysis. The same survey, however, showed that Disney subscribers who had previously churned and then returned (aka ‘resubscribers’) to take the Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ bundle are 59% less likely to churn within 12 months than those who take Disney+ alone.

This finding, Ampere says, suggests bundling streaming services will have a significant impact on the 42% who “regularly subscribe, cancel and resubscribe.”

Bundling of streaming services has become increasingly popular in recent weeks with Disney/Warner Bros. Discovery and Comcast all beginning to offer multiple services through a single subscription. Ampere Consumer data indicates there is currently limited overlap in uptake between those services, suggesting great upsell and churn mitigation potential.

Ampere’s study indicates that the majority of those 42% skew younger (18-44 years old) and are more likely to be in family households. They are also avid media consumers, watching more TV and video each day, stacking more SVoD services, and consuming alternative media formats, such as video games and music services more frequently than the average US consumer. However, this wide media diet also means the cohort is 40% more likely than average to exhibit signs of "subscription fatigue" and 21% more likely to desire unified access to content across different services (known as "aggregation"). Ampere said.

Ampere said that in Q1, just 15% of the subscriber base of either Disney+, Hulu or Max currently take all three in the household, and just 10% of Comcast mobile, broadband and TV customers subscribing to Peacock, Netflix or Apple TV+ currently take all three. Therefore, there is a significant upsell opportunity for a wide audience, who will benefit from expanded content offered by bundled services at discounted rates, according to the researcher.

“As the SVoD market in the US has become increasingly saturated, new subscribers are harder to find, which makes retention all the more important,” said Daniel Monaghan, Research Manager at Ampere Analysis. “There is a sizeable group of consumers who frequently subscribe to SVoD platforms, cancel and resubscribe. Reducing this behaviour would boost platforms’ top and bottom lines. Analysis of Ampere data reveals that churn is far smaller for bundle-takers than non-bundle resubscribers for some offerings.

“For instance, resubscribers who took the Disney bundle in Q1 2023 were less than half as likely to churn within a year, compared to standalone Disney+ resubscribers,” Monaghan added. “We’re now seeing competing players following suit and joining forces to bundle their platforms, and our consumer data shows the overlap of uptake for those is currently very limited. This should stand them in good stead to both upsell their services and limit the churn of resubscribers and first-timers alike.”

LONDON—When it comes to commissioning original streaming programming, Netflix and Amazon returned to dominance in the latest quarterly report from Ampere Analysis. 

Original commissioning, has been challenged in recent years by the launch of studio-backed SVoD platforms, but according to Ampere’s latest report, in the first three months of 2024, Netflix commissioned its highest number of new titles since Q3 2021, and Amazon set a new record for its quarterly commissions. This resurgence in Original orders coincides with falling commissions from cost-conscious rival streamers, which meant the two streaming giants accounted for more than half (53%) of all SVoD commissions globally in Q1, Ampere said.

This growth is spurred by increased investment in international territories, with Netflix and Amazon ordering the majority of their titles from outside the United States. Over the past few years, spend outside of the U.S. by the two commissioners has increased steadily. Ampere predicts it will continue to rise as the players attempt to combat domestic subscriber stagnation by chasing expansion internationally. 

In Q1 2024, Netflix’s Western European commissions almost achieved parity with North American titles for the first time, Ampere said. Asia Pacific titles also saw a notable uptick. Netflix is seizing the opportunity for international growth, focusing on proven market providers of portable content such as Spain, India, and South Korea

Netflix’s Western European commissions were led by the UK, Spain, and Germany. Cost-effective Unscripted content featured heavily in the platform’s Western European commissions, with Documentaries accounting for 30% of regional orders, up from 23% in Q1 last year. The UK only contributed 43% of the region’s Documentaries, a notable drop from the same period last year when it was 78%

In Asia Pacific, Thailand experienced the biggest individual increase with nine titles ordered in Q1 2024. Crime & Thriller content was a focus in India, which is predicted to become Netflix’s largest subscriber hub in the region as it seeks to compete more closely with Amazon in the country.

Netflix is increasingly reliant on pay-one agreements with theatrical studios for its supply of new, exclusive US films, and has decreased its domestic commissioning of original movies, according to Ampere. By contrast, it has upped its international movie orders in territories like the Nordics, Asia Pacific, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

In comparison, in Q1 2024, Amazon’s Asia Pacific commissions were dominated by Indian productions with a record slate of 37 titles, more than the previous six quarters combined and an increase on Amazon’s previous major Indian slate in Q2 2022 of 32%. Global streamers, including Amazon, have previously struggled to compete with local players that offer strong regional content, Ampere said, however, this total signals Amazon’s intention to take on the incumbent platforms, cementing India as the cornerstone of its international strategy

The streamer also announced its largest slate of Indian original movies to date and is actively pursuing pay-one and co-financing deals with local theatrical distributors. Enabled by its takeover of studio MGM, Amazon has upped its global orders of original movies in the past two years, commissioning more films than Netflix for the first time in Q2 2023

Germany, where Amazon leads Netflix in terms of local subscribers, was the biggest winner in Western European commissions. After a period of focus on Italy and France, Amazon’s commissions saw an unprecedented increase in Germany in Q1 2024 with 13 content orders, almost doubling a previous high in Q1 2021.

 “The market saturation in North America, the growing cost of production, and the lingering impact of the Hollywood strikes have pushed Netflix and Amazon to increase investment in international productions to stimulate subscriber growth," said Mariana Enriquez Denton Bustinza, Senior Researcher at Ampere Analysis. "While several studio-backed SVoDs have made cutbacks internationally, these two streaming giants are doubling down on their localized global strategy. For Netflix, this means catering to a broad subscriber base while leaning on markets whose productions offer the greatest potential for crossover appeal. 

"Meanwhile, Amazon’s approach remains more heavily targeted towards key markets such as India, while it leverages its global position to expand further into the theatrical market to generate downstream revenues from its platforms,” she added.   

LONDON—Total revenues from streaming services are expected to overtake revenues from pay TV subscriptions in the U.S. for the first time later this year, bolstered by ad revenues from hybrid streaming subscription tiers, according to researcher Ampere Analysis. 

With the eclipse expected to take place by Q3 2024, streaming will continue to race ahead as traditional pay TV declines, with the value of pay TV in 2028 expected to fall to half the value it saw at its peak in 2017, Ampere said. The new analysis comes from Ampere’s continuously updated Markets Operators data service.

Although the number of streaming subscriptions overtook pay TV in 2016, it’s taken almost eight years for revenues to catch up due to streaming lower average revenue per user (ARPU), which is currently around 1/10th that of pay TV, Ampere said. 

The average American household spends approximately $46 per month on streaming services. When it comes to pay-TV, however, the majority of households bundle services with their local broadband provider, making it harder to estimate the cost of monthly pay-TV subscriptions. However, consumers can expect an average of anywhere between $60 and $140 per month for a pay-TV service (without broadband included).  

Ampere says the decline in growth of subscriber numbers in the U.S. and U.K. has forced streamers to shift their focus towards revenue growth, and eventually, profitability. Although ad-supported versions of popular streaming services have only been around for about 3-4 years, revenues from those services are expected to pass $9 billion in the U.S. this year, bolstered by Amazon Prime Video’s new advertising tier which launched this quarter. 

Increased revenue from advertising and a boost in subscriber growth, alongside the decline in traditional pay TV, has led to this important inflection point being reached, Ampere said.

“Most major streaming services in the US have launched their hybrid advertising tiers, which, along with increasing clamp-downs on password sharing, have been successful at reigniting growth in the streaming market,” said Rory Gooderick, Senior Analyst at Ampere Analysis. “There is still a way forward for pay TV, however. Disney and Charter’s recent deal in the US, which gave almost 15 million Charter subscribers access to Disney+’s advertising tier, shows how the two businesses can work together to maximise streaming’s reach to domestic subscribers, and highlights the importance of traditional distribution platforms as service aggregators. Longer term contracts and the reduction in churn makes this an attractive proposition for streamers, while control over the billing relationship also means there’s something in it for the pay TV provider too.”

LONDON—Spending on content worldwide will climb 2% in 2024, reaching $247 billion. That marks a return to growth following the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike, says Ampere Analysis.

The media analysis firm attributes the growth to the revival of postponed productions by broadcasters and streaming services.

“2023 was a worse than expected year for content spend due almost entirely to the Hollywood strikes. The good news is we can look forward to a small recovery of 2% as production resumes and the U.S. election approaches,” said Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis. “Global streaming services are forecast to increase total content investment by 7% in 2024 and thus remain key for content spend growth. However, it’s not all rosy as many studios look to cut back on theatrical releases, and broadcasters cut spending due to ongoing declines in TV advertising.” 

Helping to buoy production during the strike, which brought production in the United States to a near-complete halt, were global streaming services that continued steady delivery of new original content last year with the help of non-U.S. productions, Ampere Analysis said.

Greater spending on original shows and movies from markets like Germany, India and South Korea pushed up spending of global streaming services to more that $27 billion, an increase of 13% year-on-year. This year global streaming services are expected to increase their total content spend by 7% to $46 billion, it said.

While broadcasters were hardest hit by last year’s strike, the 2024 presidential election is expected to bolster ad revenue and content spending, preventing a further decline this year, it said.

Theatrical studios in the United States will see a 14% year-on-year decline in content investment in 2024 due to the lingering effects of the strike and a focus on cost efficiencies in the cinema market, which remains depressed following COVID, it said.

However, Amazon and Apple are expected to buck this trend. Apple plans to leverage content to raise brand awareness of Apple TV+, and Amazon plans to take advantage of its 2022 MBM acquisition, it said.

More information is available on the company’s website. 

After a difficult two years when streaming companies have been under mounting pressure from Wall Street to staunch their eye-watering losses, a new study from Ampere Analysis suggests that their painful efforts to cut costs and boost prices will soon start paying off. 

The new Amprere study argues that a significant turnaround for studio direct streaming is just around the corner and that all major studio streaming divisions (excluding sports operations) are set to start turning a consistent profit within 18 months.

The shift to profitability has wide-ranging implications for content production and the wider entertainment landscape with a reversal of negative investor will likely to come sooner than previously predicted, the researchers said. 

Ampere predicts that Disney is likely to reach profitability first, as early as calendar Q1 2024 (two quarters earlier than the company itself has predicted). Warner Bros. Discovery will be a close second, reaching consistent profitability by calendar Q3 2024 with both Paramount and NBCU not far behind, achieving the goal by Q1 2025.

They study finds that not only have all the major studio streamers now laid the groundwork for profitability in relatively short order. They all also look likely to turn streaming services into significant sources of profit in upcoming years. 

By 2028, studios will earn between $1 billion and $2 billion in earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) a year from streaming based on current market footprint alone. Additional geographic expansion would lead to even more upside, the researchers said. 

“The analysis shows that streaming direct is not a broken business model but an important revamp of an existing content exploitation window,” executive director at Ampere Analysis Guy Bisson said. “Understanding that this model is on the point of consistent and notable profitability is crucial as the ability of streaming to continue driving content origination and investment has wide implications for the creative sector. Additionally, with studios now able to position streaming correctly as a profit-making direct subscription window that is complimentary to theatrical exhibition, transactional and free television, sectors that had previously been deprioritized should also see a boost. The rationalization of streaming is already seeing renewed support among studios for the theatrical window and revisiting of the content licensing model.”

The analysis found that the shift in fortunes has been driven by two major factors: cost rationalization (particularly the two major cost centers of content and staff) and the move to embrace advertising dollars. Advertising also provides a wild card opportunity for significantly more growth and profit than currently predicted by the models, which are based on known existing operations.

Profitability of the streaming direct model (much of the growth in which will be driven by advertising) will also see an acceleration of free streaming, including Free Ad-supported Streaming Television (FAST) channels, the study found. 

“A confluence of factors as varied as the end of Covid-19 lockdowns, geopolitics and the cost-of-living crisis created the environment that forced the studios to reassess the return on investment of the streaming direct model,” Bisson concluded. “The cost rationalization of the last 12 months has now positioned the industry for genuine streaming profitability in relatively short order. Passing that milestone will impact multiple windows within the entertainment value chain. It will enable a return to flexibility and experimentation and a realization that existing models are already in place to fully exploit studio output when streaming direct takes its rightful place as one window in the broader value chain.”

LONDON—Now that Disney has bought out Comcast’s share of Hulu, plans to combine Disney+ and Hulu Video on Demand (VoD) service will result in the streaming service offering one-third of the 100 most popular titles in the U.S. based on the latest data from Ampere Analysis. Ampere’s estimates show that a planned combined app that will bring the services together early next year would have the greatest share of the top 100 most popular titles, putting it behind only Amazon based on Ampere Popularity data from September 2023.

Combined, the Disney+/Hulu app will offer 9,000 distinct movies and TV seasons, Ampere’s latest title-level analysis of the content offer suggests—even if the approximately 300 Comcast-owned titles are removed from the service. This would position Disney+ and Hulu’s total content offering behind only Amazon Prime Video’s 10,892 titles and ahead of Netflix’s 8391 (as of Q3 2023).

According to the way it measures viewer engagement, Ampere says Disney+ held 17 of the top 100 performing SVoD titles in the U.S. in Q3 2023, led by its movie library. When combined with Hulu, that figure jumps to 33, giving the joint entity the largest overall share of top titles. In comparison, Netflix has 29 titles and Max 18.

Disney+’s content strategy relies on its strong Children & Family content portfolio and tentpole Sci-Fi & Fantasy releases from major franchises, according to Amperem which adds that these would represent 81% of the top 100 most popular titles on the combined platform. Hulu’s content library would complement Disney+’s as it includes popular titles from genres currently under-served on Disney+, particularly Crime & Thriller, Romance, and Horror, the researcher said.

Disney+ already includes some of the Hulu library in non-U.S. markets under the Star label, so that a combined content mix would align with the strategy internationally, Ampere added.

As of October 2023, Hulu has more subscribers than Disney+ in the U.S. and according to Ampere’s consumer survey, 44% of U.S. Hulu subscribers already have access to Disney+, largely due to bundles offering both platforms and ESPN. This provides an opportunity for Disney+ to convert the remaining majority of Hulu subscribers who don’t currently subscribe, Ampere said.

Ampere’s consumer survey also shows that 43% of U.S. SVoD users agree with feeling “overwhelmed” with the number of services they have access to, so offering one service that includes top titles from recognizable IP like Marvel and “Star Wars,” and Hulu’s vast content library will offer a wider appeal among subscribers, Ampere said.

“With a combined app offering Disney+ and Hulu due to launch in the US in early 2024, its compelling new streaming content offer will surely shake up the status quo,” said Joshua Rustage, Analyst at Ampere Analysis. “The combined Disney+ and Hulu catalogue will provide one of the most well-rounded and popular offerings in a single platform, upping the content stakes at a time when many are pulling back on content investment. Rivals will have to ensure their offerings remain competitive as the battle for viewing time intensifies, especially as the need to pull in advertising dollars is now also central to the streaming mix.”

As the major streaming companies attempt to navigate the recent downturn in profits, they’ve turned to consolidation, subscription price increases and cutting programming budgets, with a more increased focus on unscripted (read “cheaper to produce”) programming such as game shows and reality TV.

This is according to Ampere Analysis which estimates that while the major global streaming platforms (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, Paramount+ and Max/HBO Max) will raise their programming investment to $42 billion total this year, that represents only a 7% increase, compared to 24% growth in streaming spending in 2022. And although 90% of budgets go towards high-budget scripted originals, streamers are increasing their budgets for unscripted game shows and reality TV by 22% in 2023.

Scripted TV content remains the most powerful tool for attracting subscriptions and maintaining subscriber engagement, Ampere said, with Crime & Thriller topping SVoD spending at $12 billion this year. Sci-Fi & Fantasy and Comedy genres also command substantial funds, as well. 

The unknown X factor in how all of this will impact production budgets is that although the writers' strike has been settled, production still is at a standstill with actors staying on the picket lines. 

Perhaps that's why Ampere said that acquiring legacy content will also be an increased focus among streamers as well. Content acquisition spend for major SVoD platforms is projected to grow by 5% next year, reaching $14.8 billion. Crime, Romance, and Drama genres lead in acquired content spending, offering substantial potential for cross-border content licensing, Ampere said, citing recent  successes with NBCUniveral's Suits and HBO shows Band of Brothers and Insecure on Netflix.

Ampere notes that at the platform level, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video adopt a balanced approach to genre allocation, leveraging their scale to cater to the preferences of diverse demographics, while other SVoD players are pursuing more targeted spending strategies, focusing on key genres and IP to cultivate loyal subscriber bases. Apple TV+, for example, dedicates 40% of its budget to Crime & Thriller titles, building on past successes such as Slow Horses and Severance. Disney+ has prioritized Sci-Fi & Fantasy and Children & Family genres, anchored by TV spin-offs from the Star Wars, MCU and Pixar franchises.

Ampere says that in light of intense competition and the influence of macroeconomic factors, SVoD platforms will prioritize cost management and effective content acquisitions to thrive in 2024 and beyond.

“The moderated spending growth rate in comparison to previous years underscores the maturity of the SVoD market and the importance of strategic spending across genres,” said Neil Anderson, Senior Analyst at Ampere Analysis. “At $15 billion, Netflix will retain its position as the top investor in global streaming content, albeit with a modest 2% increase. Meanwhile, rivals such as Disney+, Paramount+, and Apple TV+ are poised for more substantial budget expansions, projecting year-on-year increases exceeding 10%.”

 The growth of international streaming markets and the relative maturity of the North American streaming market continues to alter the global streaming landscape with Western Europe is set to surpass North America in 2024 in terms of streaming homes with at least one subscription streaming service, according to new research from Ampere Analysis.

The UK and Germany driving much of this growth in Western Europe, the study found. North America (USA plus Canada) will fall to the world’s third-largest geographic region for streaming homes after Asia, and now Western Europe, according to the research from Ampere Analysis.  

“Streaming saturation in North America is the primary driver for reduced growth,” explained Guy Bisson, executive director at Ampere Analysis. "Other world regions still have headroom for new customers, both in terms of customers entirely new to streaming and in the number of services taken in each home. North America also losing its place as the largest revenue generating region can only accelerate the existing trend for focusing content investment on key growth markets having long-term implications for the US production sectors and for inward investment into Asia and Europe.”

With countries outside of North America forecast to drive streaming growth, the region will no longer account for the majority of streaming revenue and North America will fall below 50% of global revenue in 2024, the researchers also reported. 

These trends have important implications for content investment, the study also found. Global streamers have been increasingly targeting international markets for production to satisfy the demands of audiences outside the US and bolster further growth in regions with the most potential for new customer acquisition. Already only 43% of Netflix’s upcoming series are being made in the USA and other streamers are following suit. Amazon Prime and Disney+ also now make fewer than 50% of their upcoming shows in the USA and Paramount+ is rapidly heading the same way.

With Asia holding the crown as the fastest-growing and largest region for streaming, it is likely to see the biggest increase in focus for content investment with a knock-on effect for viewers who will see more and more Asian-origin content on their streaming platforms. Western Europe, too, will become increasingly influential as a source of content on streaming as, moving forward, it is set to remain the second strongest region for streaming customers, the researchers said. 

LONDON—In just two years, the proportion of internet users claiming to watch little to no linear TV in a typical day grew 22% to almost half (45%) according to a report just published by Ampere Analysis. Based on proprietary consumer research carried out with 54,000 adults aged 18-64 across 28 markets worldwide, the findings show that while younger groups are most disengaged with broadcast TV, 35% of those claiming to watch no linear TV were over 45 years old—a rise from 28% in Q1 2017. 

According to Ampere, despite broadcasters’ traditional audiences moving away, there are opportunities to retain viewers through a mix of live and event content, and via enhancing broadcaster streaming offerings.

The reports showed that the number of high linear TV viewers—those who watch at least four hours of broadcast TV daily—has declined over the last two years, down from 19% of respondents in Q1 2021 to 15% in Q1 2023. In comparison, the number of internet users saying they watch four-plus hours of VoD content in a typical day is up from 58% in Q1 2021 to 62% in Q1 2023.

Despite the declines, Ampere says it is far too early to write off linear TV. The stability of low-level viewing (less than two hours per day) suggests that many internet users still tune in for key live events such as sports, major reality TV shows, and exclusive dramas, according to the researcher, who adds that these content pillars should remain a key part of acquisition and commissioning strategies for linear broadcasters

Additionally, while consumers are turning away from linear broadcast TV, broadcasters’ investment in their own VoD services has ensured they can still engage those audiences who prefer to watch via streaming, Ampere adds, noting that engagement with these broadcast-led video services has increased by 26% since Q1 2023.

“At first glance, the decline in linear TV viewing looks to be a worrying trend for broadcasters as their traditional audience begins to drift away, said Minal Modha, Research Director at Ampere Analysis. “However, as the increased engagement with broadcast-led video services shows, if the linear channels can continue to adapt and provide a strong OTT offering for audiences switching from scheduled TV channels, they have an opportunity to retain them, albeit on a different medium."

LONDON—The global addressable TV sector is set to continue its rapid growth with the $56 billion 2023 global spend set to rise by more than 50% to $87 billion by 2027, according to a new report on the addressable TV market published today by Ampere Analysis in partnership with GroupM Nexus’s addressable TV solution Finecast and Microsoft Advertising.

The report, which was informed by over 100 interviews with advertisers, streamers and agencies, also highlighted a number of emerging technologies, such as connected autos and generative AI, that could spur growth. 

Even so, the researchers cautioned that the rapidly growing sector still faces a number of major challenges that could slow growth. 

Richard Broughton, executive director at Ampere Analysis, explained that “[t]he extent to which addressable TV advertising is now being used by non-traditional TV advertisers, including smaller companies and B2B brands, is illustrative of how the medium can support TV service providers in their push to reach beyond traditional broadcast TV budgets and to open entirely new revenue streams. But it’s clear that there is still work to be done by the industry in challenging entrenched opinions and in countering common misconceptions.”

Key takeaways from the analysis included: 

• An average of a sixth of advertisers’ video advertising budgets are currently being spent with addressable TV service providers. This is as high as a fifth in mature markets like the US, with all major industry categories represented among addressable TV advertisers.
• Both B2B and B2C marketers are using addressable TV to support performance marketing and brand-building objectives, targeting specific audience segments or geographies.
• Brands are using addressable TV to extend campaign reach beyond broadcast TV. This is key in younger groups for whom the aggregate reach of addressable TV services provides a nearly 25% incremental reach boost over total monthly broadcast TV reach in developed markets.
• While both small and large brands are using addressable TV, smaller advertisers devote less of their marketing budget to addressable TV. Addressable TV service providers need to work to remove non-cost barriers to using the technology, simplifying the purchase and planning process to support uptake.
• Addressable TV typically commands higher pricing, which is attractive for service providers, but there are also incentives for service providers to deploy addressable TV to support viewer satisfaction and retention. Viewers who believe their TV service offers relevant advertising rate their streaming service higher in terms of user satisfaction – with an average Net Promoter Score 16 points higher than those viewers who don’t feel they are receiving relevant commercials. 

“The exponential expansion of the addressable TV advertising market serves as a clear indicator of the immense prospects awaiting service providers and brands,” explained Kristian Claxton, managing partner, innovation and strategy at Finecast. “This research illustrates the inherent potential of addressable TV as a powerful tool for targeted communication with previously hard-to-reach audience segments. The seamless integration of such capabilities with the storytelling possibilities and brand protection mechanisms inherent in broadcast TV is well demonstrated,” 

Despite the rapid growth of the addressable TV market, the researchers said that interviews conducted for the study revealed an array of attitudes and opinions that could hold back future growth if not countered by the industry.

One problem is that in emerging markets, there was a lack of clarity about the capabilities of addressable TV. Some brands were unaware of the targeting capabilities of addressable TV platforms in their region, leading them to spend with alternative media.

Even in developed markets, where addressable TV technologies are more mature, some marketers were not aware of the reach of addressable TV services, believing it to still be limited compared to broadcast media, the researchers noted. 

The report also found that among those advertisers not yet purchasing addressable TV there was a widespread perception that addressable TV services were expensive. This contrasts the belief of brands already purchasing via addressable who felt that addressable TV was just as cost-effective as other formats, the study found. 

The report forecasts that as case studies filter through to the wider market, those advertisers who are still wary of the technology will begin their addressable TV journey, contributing to the sector growing to an $87 billion industry by 2027.

The research also highlights emerging technologies and screens that will support future addressable campaigns.

Interviews revealed that connected cars have already debuted as an addressable TV channel in some markets, with some brands taking advantage of geotargeting opportunities to reach passengers with messaging. And some agencies and brands were thinking about how targeted QR code-based formats support a level of follow-through and sales attribution, the researchers 

The report also suggests that new technologies such as generative AI may begin to support the creative process in the next few years, helping to address the practical challenges associated with developing the multiple creatives required for dynamic or addressable creative campaigns.

“Addressable creatives already allow media buyers to adapt messaging by audience group and in response to events, keeping commercial messages fresh and relevant,” explained Dave Osborn, general manager, sales at Microsoft Advertising. “However, many of the most exciting developments in the addressable TV market have yet to be fully explored by brands. As many advertisers now see addressable TV as a core part of their media mix, their focus will shift to take full advantage of the capabilities of addressable TV and innovations such as generative AI and emerging technologies.”

Depending on how long the WGA strike lasts and how much the work stoppage will affect TV and film production, one researcher says the signs of a slowdown in TV commissioning has already impacted the availability of new programming.

According to Ampere Analysis, the rate of TV commissioning in the U.S. dropped significantly in the second half of last year, and continues to remain low in 2023. The downturn is most profound for scripted content, with scripted TV commissions in the last three quarters down by 24% year-on-year— with overall volumes even lower than during the Covid pandemic, Ampere says. However, the researcher also believes that the resulting content deficit has created opportunities for those in a position to invest. 

To-date, the time lag between commission and release times means that although commissions have been lower, audiences have yet to see the full effect on TV schedules. But low commissioning now will create a future content deficit, with the slowdown likely to start to bite in Q3 2023 and beyond.

Ampere outlines two possible scenarios: In the first, if commissioning rates recover soon, audiences will see between 5% and 7% fewer scripted releases each quarter between now and Q2 2024, when the effects will ease.

In the second scenario, if commissioning continues at current levels, audiences will start to feel a much greater impact towards the end of this year, with 16% fewer releases expected in Q4 2023, and 20% fewer from Q2 2024 onwards.

One streamer—Amazon—has bucked this trend, according to Fred Black, Research Manager at Ampere Analysis.

“Scripted commissions at flagship subscription video on demand (SVoD) services are definitely feeling the impact of budget cuts—and the studios aren’t only cutting back at their streaming platforms, with pay TV networks like TBS, FX, OWN, Freeform, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET and AMC all reducing scripted commissions by over 50% when comparing the past nine months with the previous period. 

“There’s one big exception however—Amazon—which is capitalizing on cutbacks made by rivals by increasing commissions of comedy and sci-fi and fantasy shows,” Black added. “Investing in scripted commissions now can pay off doubly for those willing to gamble, as the extra commissions will hit the market just as the output of original content from rivals drops to its lowest levels early next year.”

Although the decline of unscripted commissions was severe across SVoD and pay TV, SVoD services have been the biggest loser, with commissions down 33% over the last nine months versus the same period in the previous year, with 151 fewer titles commissioned. 

Conversely, advertising supported video on demand (AVoD) and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) commissioners have provided a bright spot in the gloom with 83 Unscripted commissions over the period, 6% of all Unscripted activity in the US in that time.

The biggest decline in unscripted commissioning has been at Warner Bros. Discovery, according to Ampere. The WBD merger has created an “unscripted behemoth”—but one that the company is looking to slim down. 

The drop in unscripted commissions overall can be largely attributed to WBD. Between July 2022 and March 23, there were 241 fewer unscripted TV commissions in the U.S.: WBD unscripted commissions accounted for 172 of them, a 32% drop for the company’s unscripted commissions overall, with cuts occurring at both its pay TV and particularly SVoD platforms. The drop across the market outside WBD is only 6%. Unscripted content was trimmed at Paramount and Comcast too by 16% and 13% respectively, while at Disney unscripted output actually increased, primarily via Hulu.

“While the commissioning cutbacks in Unscripted content at the dominant pay TV and SVoD platforms have been severe, there is a sense of balance being restored after a significant pandemic peak,” Black said. COVID-19 saw unscripted commissions soar out of necessity due to production complications, and then continue at a high level due to a surprisingly enthusiastic audience. What we’re seeing now is a course correction. Unscripted commissions in the US were down 16% over the last three quarters compared to the previous year, but compare it to the same period in 2019 and early 2020, and the drop is only 1%. There’s also optimism in the growing number of commissions from AVoD and FAST platforms, showing that while some SVoD services may have over-leveraged on Unscripted content, there are plenty of nascent players still investing.”

LONDON—The average annual spend per U.S. household on video services is set to fall by 8% by 2027 according to the latest research from research firm Ampere Analysis, which adds that 2023 mark the point when per-household spending on subscription streaming (SVoD) services in the U.S. could no longer compensate for the continued decline in pay TV and spend on video begins to shrink.

Annual bills for video content peaked at $1,146 per household in the U.S. in 2022 with a post-pandemic bounce-back in theatrical expenditure and an 18% year-on-year increase in SVoD outlay to $374 per household per year. 

This year, however, SVoD revenue growth in the U.S. will slow, hindered by market maturity and economic pressures. The added impact of cord-cutting will see yearly pay TV investment per average household fall below $650 for the first time since 2006. The result is likely to be the beginning of a slow decline in annual average household expenditure on TV, Ampere said.

Meanwhile, in Western Europe, where the pay TV market is stable, increasing demand for SVoD services will drive an 11% increase in household expenditure on video by 2027. In fact, Norway’s per household spend on video is set to overtake the U.S. in 2025, the first Western market to do so, according to Ampere. Norwegian homeowners will each be spending more than $50 more on video than U.S. households by 2027, and almost $300 more than the average U.K. home, and substantially more than those in Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

“Spend on video has finally hit its limit for US households, said Maria Dunleavey, Senior Analyst at Ampere Analysis. “As the U.S. subscription OTT market edges closer to saturation point and demand for pay TV continues to fall, annual spend per household on video services has tipped into decline. By 2027, unless streaming services can sustain significant price inflation, U.S. households will be investing almost $90 less per year on video services. 

“Recent moves from TV groups to focus on hybrid tiers and free ad-supported video services represent one approach to compensating for this downward pressure,” Dunleavey added. “By contrast, in Western Europe, pay TV expenditure is more stable and the expansion of SVoD continues to drive spend on video. For U.S. groups, capitalizing on this international growth is increasingly key given the pressures on domestic income.”

LONDON—Subscription OTT services’ spending on sports rights globally will reach record levels in 2023, hitting $8.5 billion, a 64% spike from 2022 according to a new report from Ampere Analysis’ Sports analyzing the role of sports in the streaming wars.

The research also predicts that the share of spend on sports rights by streaming platforms will increase in 2023 to reach 21% of global sports rights investment, up from 13% in 2022.

This marks a major change in how streaming services spend their programming budgets. The researchers noted that subscription OTT services’ spend on sports rights has lagged behind their investments in original TV and film. In 2022, 28% of original content spending was from streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and Apple TV+. 

However, as streaming technology has improved, and as fans increasingly expect to be able to stream their favorite sports, the sports streaming model finally took off. At the same time, the challenging economic outlook for traditional sports broadcasters – such as pay TV channels, ad-funded commercial channels and public service broadcasters – incentivizes rights owners to appeal to streaming platforms in order to achieve media rights growth.

Leading the way for streaming platforms’ growing investment in sports rights, particularly in Europe, is DAZN. The global OTT sports streaming service accounted for more than half (54%) of all subscription OTT services’ spend on sports rights in 2022, Ampere reported. 

However, recent years have seen an acceleration in sports rights spend by general entertainment services – such as Peacock and Viaplay – as service providers look to differentiate from peers in an increasingly crowded market. General entertainment services accounted for six of the top 10 subscription OTT services by global spend on sports rights in 2022, the report found.

The exclusive NFL deal with Amazon that kicked off in September 2022 was arguably the turning point for sports on general entertainment OTT platforms. It represented  the largest single deal signed to-date by any sports streaming service, and has since been surpassed only by YouTube – also with the NFL.

“The transition to streaming will take longer for sports than for other genres," explained Jack Genovese, research manager at Ampere Analysis. "This is in part because of the nature of sports rights deals, which typically span multiple years. It is also due to the sheer value of sports rights, and the sensitivities characterizing the distribution and consumption of sport. The need for high quality, low latency feeds will continue to favor risk-averse behavior among broadcasters and rights owners alike. However, streaming will offer opportunities for sports to experiment with content, distribution and monetization, which will revolutionize the way in which sports rights are sold and bought in the future."

Ampere’s research uses the media analyst’s latest suite of data products: Sports – Media Rights, which tracks data on sports TV rights in the largest markets around the world, and Sports – Consumer, a regular series of consumer interviews covering sports fans in 12 countries around the world.

LONDON—Video software provider Synamedia has unveiled research on piracy covering seven countries that found comedy is the most pirated entertainment genre. 

Piracy was driven by such titles as “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”, and “Ted Lasso”, with half of all pirate viewers streaming comedy illegally. This is followed by the action and adventure genre, and the crime and thriller category respectively, the researchers reported. 

The study, conducted by Ampere Analysis, finds the value of entertainment piracy is three times bigger than sports piracy and that the fragmentation of rights across more services is now affecting piracy in the entertainment market as it has for sports.

If piracy was stopped, sports would create $9.8 billion in potential revenue in the seven surveyed markets, however this figure is dwarfed by the possibility of unlocking an additional $21.8 billion in revenue by converting movie and TV pirates to legal services, the researchers reported. 

The study covers the impact of sports and entertainment piracy across seven countries and the potential revenues that would result from converting pirate viewers to legal subscribers. 

“Unless the industry takes action, the fragmentation of premium content compounded by the current economic climate will continue to drive viewers to both paid and free piracy services,” explained Avigail Gutman, vice president of intelligence and security operations at Synamedia. “This represents a real risk to rights holders, broadcasters and streaming providers. As well as using tools and techniques to protect content and services, operators can counter the rise in piracy by ensuring content is easy to find and meeting consumers’ demands for mobile-first services, as well as more aggregated services and billing.”

The data shows that stopping piracy of a single Hollywood major movie release can trigger revenues of between $130m and $280m in the U.S. alone, with super-hero blockbusters offering the biggest opportunities. For a popular title like “Spider Man: No Way Home”, stopping piracy would lead to potential revenue for a studio streaming service of over $400m, based on the true annual lifetime value of streaming subscribers.

Of the seven countries surveyed, Synamedia’s report finds that the market with the most to gain is the US, with the potential of $13.7 billion in new revenue annually by stopping movie and TV piracy and an additional $5 billion related to sports. This would generate $5.9 billion in annual income for US streaming providers, with the 28 most heavily pirated movies and TV titles alone contributing up to $1.8 billion in new revenues.

According to the research, Germany, Italy and the UK have the lowest levels of piracy. But, by stopping piracy and converting pirate viewers to legal subscribers in the UK for example, video providers and content owners have the potential to unlock a whopping $1.36 billion for entertainment and $1.17 billion for sports annually, the companies said.

Football is the star sports piracy attraction and, despite being available on free-to-air TV, FIFA World Cup it is the most pirated league according to the findings. This reflects its popularity globally but indicates that even free content can suffer from piracy if fans are already using illegal sites to access other sports content. 

UEFA Champions League and the English Premier League are second and third respectively. The only non-football league in the top 10 is the NBA. After football, the most popular sports to watch on pirate services in the seven countries surveyed are cricket and kabaddi, driven by piracy in the Indian sub-continent, and badminton, driven by piracy in Asia, the researchers said. 

The study also found that pirate viewers using both free and paid for services are more likely to be male with paying pirates more likely to be to be men under 35 with young children. The research finds that 44% of affluent consumers pay to pirate live sports, despite most pirates falling into lower income groups, indicating a desire to cut costs and watch all the leagues in one place.

As fragmentation of content rights continues, the research finds that pirate viewers tend to be those who are most engaged with content. As consumers increase the number of legal subscriptions they have, they also become increasingly likely to watch pirate content with 91% of respondents who have access to five or more legal video subscription services have also watched illegal content.

“There is a persistent myth that the pirate consumer won’t pay and will never pay,” noted Guy Bisson, executive director and co-founder of Ampere Analysis: This research overturns this received wisdom, with more than half of all pirate viewers paying for pirate TV services and 54% also paying for legal services. We already knew sports piracy was a big-money issue, but what surprised us most about this study was the true scale of impact on the US major studios and Hollywood as a whole.”

Building on Synamedia’s research report into sports piracy in 2021, this survey involved 16,000 consumers in Brazil, Italy, India, Germany, Thailand, UK, and US.

Synamedia and Ampere Research will host a fireside chat, ‘No laughing matter: pirates enjoy comedy’ to discuss the findings in more depth on Tuesday 28th February 2023 at 4pm UK / 5pm CET / 11 am ET / 8 am PT. More information is available here. 

LONDON—As Netflix prepares to deliver its Q4 2022 earnings report later today, Wall Street and analysts will be paying particularly close attention to the impact Netflix’s new ad supported tier might have on its subscriber counts and financial fortunes. 

An earlier December 2022 study from Antenna found that the ad-supported tier got off to a sluggish start in November of 2022, but new research from Ampere Analysis paints a different picture. 

Ampere found that Netflix recorded its highest daily subscription sign-up rate in the U.S .since the start of the pandemic in April 2020 with the launch of its ad-supported plan on November 3rd.

The new report by Ampere Analysis found that the release of the ad tier led to a 58% increase in the streamer’s average daily sign-up volumes from 3rd to 5th November, compared to the three days before the launch.

Since the new plan was made available to subscribers, 8% of those signing up to Netflix or changing their plan have taken the ad-tier, Ampere reported. 

Of those, three out of four are new sign-ups, mostly re-subscribers (64%), but also first-time users of the platform (36%).

According to the study, over 75% of new ‘Basic with Ads’ subscribers are stacking at least three Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) services, with Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Hulu being the most common other choice.

The data also indicated that the new tier wasn’t significantly cannibalizing existing subscribers or drawing large numbers of subs from more costly tiers to the less expensive ad-supported plan. 

One in four of the ad tier subscribers are existing Netflix users that have switched tiers. As expected, a large proportion (67%) of these come from the Basic tier – the most price-sensitive group of Netflix subscribers. One fifth of switchers (21%) moved from the Standard tier, and just 12% come from the Premium tier.

“Netflix’s ‘Basic with Ads’ tier, which is $3/month cheaper than the Basic tier, has succeeded at drawing back more price-sensitive Netflix subscribers who had previously churned,” explained Mayssa Jamil, analyst at Ampere Analysis. “In addition to this, with the strengthening of competitor services, the low $6.99 price point makes it more affordable to subscribe to multiple services at once, and has therefore also appealed to heavy stackers. Finally, some Basic tier users (who are more prone to churning as economic uncertainty and competition increases) have been downgrading to the ad-tier, which will aid customer retention in the long-term."

Data from Ampere’s Subscription Video Economics application tracks daily sign-up and cancellation activity of streaming services in the US, using a panel of several million households.

This year will see the slowest growth in new TV content (excluding the Covid-driven slump of 2020) in more than a decade, according to Ampere Analysis, as the continuing global economic slump forces media companies and consumers to cut back on their spending. 

Ampere expects global content expenditure to increase by just 2% year-on-year—in stark contrast to 2022 during which global content spend is projected to have grown by 6% to $238 billion, driven primarily by subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) platforms. Despite some degree of caution in the second half of last year, SVoD services collectively spent over $26bn on original content in 2022.

Economic headwinds across the globe will put pressure on household spending and advertising investment, leading companies to implement cost-saving measures and reduce content expenditure, Ampere said. For instance, following Netflix’s first global decline in subscribers, the service announced it would plateau its investment in content during 2023.

But the story isn’t uniform across media groups—some will continue to drive investment through 2023, while others will cut back. This year, Ampere says Disney and newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery will overtake Comcast and its subsidiaries to become the leading investors in original content—Disney reaching $10.5bn and Warner Bros. Discovery exceeding $9.5bn. Netflix will continue to lead dedicated SVoD spend, contributing over 25% of global SVoD original content investment.

Content investment by commercial and public broadcasters continues to linger below pre-pandemic levels, driven by declines in broadcast TV advertising revenue stemming from wider economic weakness and the ongoing shift of audiences to streaming platforms, the researcher said. In 2023, commercial broadcasters are expected to face a 3% decline in content investment.

“SVoD services will still see an increase in total content investment in 2023 but a lesser 8% year-on-year growth compared to 25% in 2022, said Hannah Walsh, research manager at Ampere Analysis. “Services will continue to focus on original content to compete in a crowded, cost-sensitive market, but we are already seeing a shift in content commissioning to incorporate a greater volume of cheaper unscripted formats.”

LONDON—As SVoD services in the US mature, pricing and bundling are key to retention, according to a recent report by Ampere Analysis. Newer platforms (including Disney+) tend to have higher levels of both sign-up and churn as they rely more heavily on individual title launches, while established SVoD platforms’ sign-up and churn rates are much more affected by pricing changes, Ampere said.

Ampere’s latest analysis shows that bundling is key to help mitigate price sensitivity, with Hulu and Disney+ having both benefitted in terms of sign-up and churn from the strength of the Disney Bundle.

With U.S. SVoD homes now having access to an average of 4.5 streaming services, newer SVoD players are continuing to see strong gross additions to their subscriber base. But the increasingly saturated SVoD market presents growing challenges for established services to maintain success, according to Ampere. As U.S. consumers edge closer to the stacking “ceiling,” attracting new subscribers and mitigating churn is more important than ever.

Because of this, retention is becoming a key battleground—for all SVoD platforms, leavers are primarily in younger, lower-income demographics, who are more sensitive to pricing and content offering. Discounted ad-supported tiers will mitigate churn here.

Another option to address price sensitivity is bundling. Hulu’s US sign-up and cancellation rates now mimic those of Disney+, as its users increasingly purchase their subscription through the bundle. Almost one third (32%) of Hulu subscribers have bundled with Disney+.

Pricing is key for established players, while new services rely on regular content releases, Ampere said. Disney+ uses franchise title releases and its first live broadcast to drive sign-ups. 

The first large peak in daily sign-ups seen on Sept. 8, 2022 corresponds with Disney+ Day, an annual event that marks the release of exclusive premieres and the announcement of upcoming content. This year’s Disney+ Day saw the release of big franchise titles including Thor: Love and Thunder, Pinocchio, and Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi’s Return. The next large peaks fall on Sept. 19, 2022, with the premiere of season 31 of Dancing with the Stars, and on Sept. 30, 2022, with the release of Hocus Pocus 2.

“The increasingly competitive SVoD market makes it hard for established services to maintain growth, while newer players continue to see strong gross additions but struggle to retain those customers,” said Mayssa Jamil, analyst at Ampere Analysis. “Pricing and content offering being the main drivers for sign-up and churn, a great way to aid customer retention is through bundling: it combines both of the above by offering larger catalogues and more frequent content additions at cheaper prices. We see this at play when looking at the way Hulu and Disney+ sign up and churn rates increasingly mimic one another thanks to the strength of the Disney Bundle.”

LONDON—Ampere Analysis has rated Paramount+ as the top streaming service in the U.S., in terms of value, based on the company’s “Popularity and Critical Rating” formula. 

Priced at $6.00 but with a content value of over $8.50 a month, Ampere says Paramount+ provides the best streaming value in the U.S. Disney+ is a close second with a content offer able to justify its recent $3.00-a-month price increase for the ad-free tier, according to the latest Popularity and Critical Rating data from Ampere Analysis.

Paramount+’s overall content offer is boosted by the breadth of its diverse content catalogue and the popularity of several hit Reality TV franchises, the researcher said. In addition, it is supported by Paramount Global’s long-running Crime drama series plus a strong mix of licensed movies and TV shows from other suppliers. Ampere’s analysis suggests Paramount+ has plenty of headroom for price rises while still remaining competitive with its US streaming peers based on its content offer.

The findings are contained in Ampere’s latest report, The value of content to major streaming services in the US, which uses Ampere’s Popularity and Critical Rating metrics to assess the relative market value of content to the price a streaming service is able to charge viewers for access.

The analysis assesses the contribution made to the market value of different content suppliers, both in-house and third-party. Paramount Global productions contribute the most to the value of Paramount+ at 40% of the market value. Licensed classics including The Brady Bunch and Star Trek: The Original Series pack a punch, generating 28% of the market value, despite contributing just 9% of the titles available on the platform.

In-house Crime & Thriller titles are the most valuable per title to Paramount+ with classics like The Godfather, NCIS, and CSI. But Paramount Global-produced Children & Family titles add considerable value to a different, younger audience segment with titles like Avatar: The Last Airbender and iCarly.

Disney is the only other major U.S. streamer analyzed that had such a stark price-to-market value disparity, Ampere said. Although pursuing a very different content strategy, Disney is buoyed by its big-name franchise content and Intellectual Property with Marvel Cinematic Universe titles contributing the most value relative to volume within the content offer. Other Disney-owned content, primarily children’s live action and animation are the single largest contributor to value, driven by the volume of Disney’s archive. But even Disney+ still derives 30% of the value of its content offer from third-party licensed content, the researcher said.

“As a later entrant to the US streaming market, Paramount+ is maximising great value as a marketing tool relative to some of its more established peers, said Ben French, Analyst at Ampere Analysis. “Simultaneously, it is also leveraging the substantial catalogue and key Reality and Entertainment franchises of Paramount Global. Our unique analysis shows the huge importance of franchise content and film and TV based on character IP. It also highlights the on-going importance of licensed content from third-party suppliers, not just to Paramount+ and Disney+ but to all the streaming services analyzed.”

LONDON—To the surprise of virtually no one, the majority of scripted movie and TV series programming on subscription video on demand was based on adaptations, franchises and other forms of pre-existing intellectual property (IP) in the first half of 2022, according to Ampere Analysis. 

According to Ampere’s report, “How original are SVoD Originals?” 64% of such programming was  based on characters and storylines viewers are already familiar with. Including Unscripted Originals, the share of IP-based commissions stood at 42% of new movies and First run Originals in the U.S. during the period, compared to 28% for their international commissions, reflecting the competitiveness and maturity of the groups’ native U.S. market, Ampere noted. SVoD players have increased their share of IP-based commissions in North America by seven percentage points over the last two years.

While Apple TV+ taps most heavily into pre-existing IP (53% of total new Originals in the year to end of H1 2022) as part of its high-budget Originals strategy, IP-based commissioning is generally the highest for studio-backed platforms like Paramount+ and Disney+ as they turn to internal—and primarily US-based—IP and franchises for their new commissions. But Ampere says this share is slowly decreasing for these studio platforms as they gradually increase their international footprint. For Disney+, IP-based titles represented 35% of its global new Originals output in the first half of 2022, down from over 60% in 2020.

The two leading independent SVoD players, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, have the lowest share of IP-based projects, according to Ampere. While leading by Originals spend level and commissioning output, Netflix has the lowest share of IP-based titles at 32%, a share that is steadily on the rise in the US market. The streaming giant is primarily drawing on book adaptations as the IP base, but also increasingly in a position to tap into some of its own hit titles and franchises to develop new Originals (e.g. its Stranger Things spin-off).

Warner Bros. Discovery’s platform Discovery+ has the lowest rate of IP-based titles (19%) due to its primarily Unscripted Originals slate. Overall, the share of IP-based titles is lower for Unscripted than Scripted commissions, although an increasing proportion of Unscripted Reality and Entertainment content is drawing on pre-existing formats for remakes, spin-offs or reboots for example, Ampere concluded.

LOS ANGELES—A combined offering of Disney+ and Hulu would account for the largest share of the 100 most popular titles of any U.S. subscription video on demand service, accounting for approximately 30%, a comprehensive lead over second place Netflix’s 23% according to a recent study by Ampere Analysis. 

Hulu is currently owned by Disney (67%) and Comcast (33%), who are due to reach a sale agreement in January 2024. However, recent reports suggest that Disney intends to close a deal earlier to take a 100% stake and integrate the streamer into Disney+ as a combined offering, giving subscribers access to popular titles from Disney’s Marvel Studios or Lucasfilm and Hulu originals like Only Murders in the Building and The Handmaid’s Tale.

Currently, subscribers to Hulu Plus Live TV already get a free subscription to premium or ad-supported versions of Disney+ at either $70 or $76 per month

Amper says a merger “seems logical,” as Disney’s share of Hulu content has grown significantly, suggesting that the company has continued to invest considerably in the platform. Since September 2016, the proportion of Hulu’s catalogue to which Disney owns the distribution rights has tripled, from 6% of all movies and TV shows to 19% by September 2022.

Meanwhile, the major studios without streaming platforms have reduced their contribution to Hulu’s content slate (down from 81% in 2016 to 71% in 2022), and those with their own streaming services have generally maintained or reduced their input. Specifically, the combined content from NBCUniversal, Paramount Global, and Warner Bros. Discovery now makes up less than 10% of all TV shows and movies on Hulu.

Ampere says the removal of content from Hulu to support newer services like Peacock, Paramount+ and HBO Max poses a threat to Hulu’s competitiveness. The streamer has already lost highly popular titles like America’s Got Talent (to Peacock), movies and TV shows set within the Star Trek universe (to Paramount+) or Family Matters (to HBO Max).

If major studios reclaim their proprietary content, Hulu could lose 10% of its overall catalogue. This figure rises to 37% of Hulu’s 100 most popular titles, using Ampere’s Popularity Score metric, which tracks overall online engagement with a title, the research firm said.

“The threat of further popular or critically acclaimed titles leaving Hulu for rival platforms is a concern as engaging content is critical for subscriber retention, especially as the US SVoD market nears saturation,” says Christen Tamisin, Analyst at Ampere Analysis. “This risk makes the argument for Disney to merge Hulu and Disney+ into a single platform stronger.”

“On the other hand, Disney+ and Hulu’s complementary catalogues mean a combined platform would have a more diverse content offering—akin to other major market players—than the two standalone platforms have currently. While the Disney brand has long been associated with family-friendly content, Hulu has a broader, general-audience appeal, offering a wide range of genres and more adult-targeted titles.”

The report was issued a day after Disney announced the return of former CEO Bob Iger, replacing Bob Chapek, who is stepping down. 

LONDON—The numbers are in and a winner in the most awarded SVoD streamer faceoff is HBO Max, according to Ampere Analysis, which based its results on a survey of more than 35 international media awarding bodies. HBO Max—which will be relaunched as HBO Max Discovery in the spring of 2023—has the highest proportion of award-winning content in the US, offering just shy of 700 championed films and TV shows, followed by Netflix and Amazon Prime Video with over 500 titles each. 

In terms of concentration of award-winning content, HBO Max leads the rankings again, with one in five (21%) decorated titles in its library, besting the smaller Apple TV+ (19%). Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, though close-behind in volume, have a much lower density of award-winning content, at 10% and 7% respectively, Ampere said.

One major factor in why HBO Max came out ahead: it has a legacy of older, critically acclaimed content, with almost three quarters of its award-winning titles over 10 years old. These older award-winning titles are 79% movies, composed of Warner Bros’ sizeable movie catalogue (137 titles) and content licensed through a partnership deal with The Criterion Channel (122 titles). Of the decorated TV Shows, HBO-produced titles make up the largest share (30%).

HBO’s reputation for high-quality, premium titles has continued into the streaming era—the 2022 Primetime Emmys saw HBO and HBO Max jointly claim a network-leading 38 wins across 13 shows. This included the most-decorated show The White Lotus, which won in 10 out of the 13 categories it was nominated in, as well as shows with multiple wins including Euphoria (6) and Succession (4).

Netflix also saw a successful Emmys season, with 26 total wins across 11 shows including historic wins for South Korean drama Squid Game which claimed six awards, the most ever by a non-English language series. Netflix’s much younger award-winning catalogue is driven by its original series, with 43% of award-winning titles under 10 years old being a Netflix Original, and a further 25% being Netflix exclusives.

Joe Hall, Analyst at Ampere Analysis says: “Platforms that focus on delivering premium, top-end content to viewers unsurprisingly have highly decorated, award-dense catalogues. The focus on quality over quantity is key to retaining and growing a subscriber base whilst maintaining a smaller library. With a shrinking pool of licensable content, emphasis should be placed on titles that consumers engage with long after the initial release. Those that are victorious at well-established awards ceremonies, such as the Emmys, not only prove their quality but can help to elevate a title’s profile to increase engagement.”

LONDON—Disney is the king of scripted TV content in North America, commissioning 181 titles so far in 2022, vastly surpassing Netflix, according to the latest research from Ampere Analysis.

Last year, Disney barely edged out Netflix, whose scripted output is around 40 so far this year, just slightly ahead of Peacock. So far Disney has ordered more new scripted content by the end of September than it took in the whole of 2021. Netflix has focused more on international with its scripted output falling by 15% in North America across the first three quarters, vs Disney’s growth of 61%.

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount have also cut back on its U.S. domestic output, with Warner Bros reducing its scripted outlay from 44 to 28 new series orders in the first three quarters (-30%), and Paramount reduced from 54 series orders to just 29 (-46%).

Mid-size players have shown the greatest development in North America in 2022. One example in this group is Apple, which is steadily evolving into a serious scripted player—this year to date it is the fourth largest commissioner of scripted content in North America with 32 new series ordered, making it one of the global top 10 commissioners of scripted for the first time.

Both Netflix and Disney will far outstrip the competition in terms of scripted output, Ampere said. Disney’s scripted commissions this year are up 28% compared to the end of Q3 last year to 181. Amazon has recorded the strongest growth among all platforms and surpassed the major studios’ commissioning with some 76 titles to date (+33%). As a result, WarnerMedia has dropped out of the top three scripted content commissioners ranking. Its strategy shift post-merger with Discovery means it is likely to be overtaken by Paramount and Comcast.

In Western Europe, traditionally led by public service broadcasters, France TV is currently the largest commissioner of new scripted content with 40 titles so far this year, roughly level with output at this stage last year. Netflix has risen to match this also with 40, four more titles than this time last year. 

The biggest reduction in scripted commissioning has come from the BBC, which has fallen to third having been the biggest commissioner in 2021, with a reduction in scripted output of 20 titles compared to this stage in 2021 (-37%). A change of hands is occurring between the major studios active in Europe too. Warner Bros. Discovery has reduced its scripted output in Europe by -29% to date this year (15 titles this year to 21 last), while Paramount has more than quadrupled its commissioning (27 commissions compared to 6 at this stage last year).

“With public service broadcasters increasingly pulling back due to budget constraints, Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) platforms and studios are ramping up scripted output, said Fred Black, Research Manager at Ampere Analysis. “At the top of the tree,  Netflix is pivoting its Originals strategy even further towards international commissions as it searches for subscriber growth, allowing Disney to catapult its way to the top of the scripted content commissioning via its base in the US, leaning on that volume for global content superiority. If Disney can successfully position its global portfolio of streaming services and cable channels in a way that suits consumers, it can claim Original content supremacy over incumbent market leader Netflix.”

LONDON—New research is providing some insights into the people who drop streaming services and then move to another service. According to a new study from Ampere Analysis, Apple TV+ and Paramount+ are the most widely chosen platforms for SVOD switchers.

Ampere defines that group as those who move from one subscription service and commit to another contract within 60 days. 

“This sub-group of churning streamers are particularly interesting because they represent customers who, rather than simply adding a new service on to their existing in-home bundle, are deliberately transferring spend from one to another,” explained report author and analyst at Ampere Analysis Ben French. “As such it shows where each platform needs to look for its direct competition. Switchers are experimenting with different platform mixes within the home, moving spend to some of the newer and less penetrated services while maintaining a core base of services. It’s some of these newer, smaller services that the incumbent streamers most need to keep an eye on.”

Of all switchers across all platforms analyzed by Ampere Analysis, 11% choose Apple TV+ and an equal proportion selected Paramount+. Netflix was third choice for the group.

The study, which looks at the 27-month period between Q1 2020 and Q1 2022, shows not only which competitors are most likely to take direct spend from each U.S. streaming service (because switchers are specifically moving their spend from one service to another), but also how existing in-home service choices impact the direction of switching platform. 

Apple TV+ is the first choice for Netflix deserters, but Prime Video and Hulu are close seconds. The report also found that those leaving Netflix have been less adventurous in trying new services than switchers from other streaming services: they currently have the lowest number of streaming services among leavers from any of the major platforms.

The researchers also found that providers with a family of streaming services benefit from the bundling effect in terms of cross-promotion, greater average revenue per user opportunities and customer retention. The advantages are especially clear for Disney+. The most popular next service for Disney+ switchers is its sister platform Hulu. Similarly, Hulu switchers' first choice is a Disney+ subscription.

A similar effect is also seen among Paramount+ churners. While Apple TV+ is the first choice and Netflix the second, switchers choose Showtime (owned by Paramount) as their third choice, the researchers found. 

Overall, around 30% of streaming subscribers switch services in any given two-month period. Of users who leave a service, just over half (56%) choose not to re-subscribe or switch to a new service within two months. However, 14% of customers leaving a platform return within two months, and this boomerang behavior reduces effective churn rate, the report found. 

Netflix leavers are most likely to boomerang: 23% of its churners resubscribe within two months. The comparable rates for other services are 11% for Disney+ and Hulu, 10% for Apple TV+, and 15% for both HBO Max and Paramount+.

The analysis also shows that higher-spending high-stack households are engaging in 'dipping' - moving in and out of services higher up the stack. Smaller services are currently being taken in homes that are already avid SVOD watchers and chasing more variety. By contrast, those with only one or two streaming services are content (for now) with the major providers and tend to move between the big two or three streaming choices.

LONDON—As major streaming players invest heavily in original content for their international expansion, new research from Ampere Analysis shows that Paramount+ entered the UK streaming market – currently dominated by giants Netflix and Amazon Prime – on 22nd June with a focus on local content and the crime and thriller genre. 

According to a new report by Ampere Analysis, Paramount+ holds now the second largest slate of Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) titles commissioned in the UK in 2022, with 13 brand new commissions so far this year, second only to the market leader Netflix, which had 17. 

In Q1 2022, Paramount+ expanded into Western Europe with most of its new commissions (seven of 12) set to be produced in the British market. The second slate of original titles in Q2 2022 consisted of eight more (six from the UK), making the UK the country with the highest number of Paramount+ original commissions outside the US.

Among the other streamers, Ampere reported that Discovery is third with 6 UK originals, followed by Amazon (5), Apple (3) and Disney (2). 

Seven of the 13 commissions announced by the streamer in the UK so far in 2022 have crime and thriller as their primary or secondary genre, reflecting the British audience’s preferences. Crime & Thriller was the most popular genre among UK respondents in Q1 2022, Ampere said. 

The Ampere research also found that SVOD stacking is becoming increasingly popular in the UK with many British households now subscribing to two or more streaming services. The average UK streaming household has access to 2.7. This is still below the US, where the average is four.

“Paramount+ is conscious of how crowded the UK streaming market is becoming, and their decision to distribute with Sky+ will help tackle this challenge by providing instant subscriber reach,” said Ampere analyst Zuzana Henkova. “One important differentiator for Paramount+ is its UK-made content and this will also be key to engaging Sky's customer base who are heavier-than-average viewers of UK content.”

LONDON—As streaming platforms seek to address high churn rates, a growing number of streamers are moving away from simultaneously offering a full season of episodes for binge viewing to a strategy of releasing new episodes on a weekly basis, according to a new report from Ampere Analysis. 

That report noted that in contrast to Netflix’s strategy of full season releases, mirrored by other platforms like Amazon and Hulu, a wave of new SVOD entrants are employing the classic model of gradual episode releases for their own original titles. 

While the trend may be only temporary, Ampere found that a weekly release schedule limits subscriber churn and better maintains engagement with content over time. The strategy is also helping to eke out perceived value in smaller catalogs.

Rahul Patel, senior analyst, explained that “a weekly release pattern more easily facilitates conversation around a show. Between episodes, viewers have ample time to discuss and re-watch episodes, which is less likely to be the case if an entire season is released together. Hence, weekly releases can lessen the chance of engagement with a show decaying rapidly after its initial release. By extension, weekly releases can benefit lower profile titles—particularly those not based on recognisable Intellectual Property—as positive word of mouth sentiment has more time to build and spread. By releasing the totality of an unknown season in one stroke, a platform runs the risk of the title being crowded out in an increasingly competitive content market.”

One reason for the move to weekly releases by new platforms is the size of their overall on-demand library, Ampere reported.

At launch, the U.S. Disney+ catalog was 10% the size of Netflix’s by total duration, while HBO Max’s was 26% and Apple TV+’s less than 1%. 

In addition, the number of flagship Originals available in the first months of launch was also limited, especially due to delays caused by COVID-19-related production shutdowns.

The move to a weekly release strategy across a range of high-profile Originals reduced the risk of churn over time, the report found. For example, Disney+ released episodes of new Marvel Cinematic Universe TV shows across 34 weeks in 2021. A fan of Marvel content wanting to avoid the plotlines being spoiled would have to subscribe to Disney+ for the majority of the year to watch each episode at the earliest opportunity.

The report also found that engagement declined faster for full-season releases. The Ampere Popularity Score indicated that engagement with a TV show decays faster for full-season releases when indexed against their popularity at launch. 

Comparing top Netflix (full-season releases) with HBO (weekly releases) shows, Ampere found that the popularity of the former dropped to 80% of the premiere month within one month of release compared to four months for the latter.

LONDON—Spending on content around the world jumped by 14% in 2021 to more than $220 billion according to new forecasts and data from Ampere Analysis. They also predict that the trend will continue into 2022 when the global content spent will top $230 billion. 

The increase was driven by increased spending on original programming by SVOD players, who spent nearly $50 billion on content in 2021, up by more than 50% from their spending in 2019, according to Ampere

Hannah Walsh, research manager at Ampere Analysis explained that in “2022, we expect content investment to exceed $230 billion, primarily driven by subscription streaming services, as the battle in the original content arena intensifies – both in the US, but also in the global markets which are increasingly key for growth.”

The research group found that Netflix continues to dominate SVOD content investment, contributing 30% of total SVOD content spend and 6% of total global content investment in 2021. Netflix is the third largest investor in professional video content at a group level ($14 billion), behind Comcast and its subsidiaries ($22.7 billion), and Disney ($18.6 billion).

“Comcast and Disney invest heavily in sports rights, which —alongside their hefty investments in original content — contributed to their leading positions in the table,” said Walsh. “Sports rights made up over a third of both Comcast and Disney’s spend in 2021.”

Content expenditure by commercial and public service broadcasters also bounded back in 2021, after being damaged in the prior year by ad spend cut-backs and production halts during the earlier phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ampere reported. 

Despite this recovery, content spend from these groups still remains below 2019 levels, largely due to ongoing pressures on revenue (primarily TV advertising revenue)—a consequence of a mixture of viewing shifts to online video, and lingering economic effects influencing advertiser expenditure.

Ampere noted that all spend data is on a P&L basis and excludes theatrical production and exploitation costs. Disney+, Apple+, HBO Max, Peacock & Paramount+ content spend is for original content only and does not include the back catalogue of content acquired from their studio parent groups.

LONDON—Disney surpassed a notable milestone this quarter, topping 100 million streaming subs for the first time, according to a new report from Ampere Analysis, with an aggressively priced bundle and a wide range of attractive programming driving the growth. 

Toby Holleran, research manager at Ampere Analysis explained the growth by noting that “the Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ bundle, which offers an $8 per month saving on taking the services individually, is a strong driver for Disney’s overall streaming growth in the US, particularly for ESPN+. A strong content portfolio from Disney+ & Hulu, making the most of its key Marvel and Star Wars franchises (on Disney+) and FX (on Hulu), as well as the continuation of live sports (on ESPN+) has further driven subscription growth this year.”

Holleran also explained that “the plan to incorporate Disney+ and ESPN+ subscriptions—alongside Hulu’s SVoD service—with a Hulu TV contract from next month will further push the domestic US subscriber base of the three services, reaching around 108m subscriptions by the end of the year. Reports suggest that NBCUniversal is considering moving content from Hulu to Peacock in 2022, but because of the combination of attractive bundled pricing, alongside a strong slate of original content scheduled for release in 2022 across Disney+ and Hulu, Ampere expects the combined suite to experience growth beyond 2021."

Disney surpassed the 50 million US subscriptions milestone in Q4 2019 following the launch of Disney+ and two years later hit the 100m milestone, Ampere said. 

Ampere is projecting that both Hulu and Disney+ are on track to finish the year in excess of 40 million subscriptions. ESPN+ is expected to finish 2021 with more than 20 million subscriptions, nearly six times more than at the end of Q3 2019, before the launch of Disney+. 

Ampere estimated that the domestic US client base of the three services will reach around 108 million subscriptions by the end of the year, up from around 99m at the end of Q3 2021. 

The projections come at a time when Disney filings with the SEC indicate that it will spend an eye watering $33 billion on programming in 2022, a big jump from the 2021 programming spend of about $25 billion.

In contrast Netflix spends about $17 billion a year on programming. 

LONDON—New data from Ampere shows that Netflix is beginning to lose its youth-skewing customer base as people of all ages are embracing streaming and on-demand entertainment. 

In some mature markets, for the first time, 24–44-year-olds are now more likely to be Netflix subscribers than their 18-24 year-old peers and even among even older groups, Netflix usage is growing rapidly, Ampere reported. 

Among those aged 45 and older, global monthly usage of Netflix increased by over 22% in the past two years, while the same time period saw a growth of just 5% among younger consumers.

The numbers, which are based on Ampere's Consumer data for Q3 2021 involving interviews of 48,000 Internet users across 25 markets, also illustrate rapid demographic changes in media consumption as the world emerges from lockdown.

As the streaming service skews older, Ampere reported that younger consumers have been flocking back to cinemas to see new major releases like “Cruella” and Marvel’s “Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” 

Nearly half of returned cinemagoers this quarter were aged under 35. Pre-pandemic, they represented just over a third of theatrical attendees, Ampere said. 

“We can see the pandemic’s impact as older audiences turned to Netflix for entertainment during the numerous lockdowns,” explained Ampere Analysis principal analyst  and consumer research lead, Minal Modha. “As we emerge from the pandemic, it’s the younger demographics who are spearheading the return to the cinema in search of a more social viewing experience.”

The survey also found that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games led to new fan engagement with a growth in younger consumers self-identifying as fans of the games. While viewing is still driven by those aged over 45, a higher proportion of fans are now younger. Prior to the Summer Olympics earlier this year, 24% of self-professed Olympics fans were under 35. By Q3 2021, this had grown to 28%, Ampere reported. 

The data also highlighted a number of ongoing trends, as ownership of streaming boxes and sticks has increased by 18% since Q3 2019, before the pandemic began, Ampere said. 

Devices such as Roku, Amazon Fire TV or Google Chromecast are now in nearly two thirds of US Internet homes and half of UK Internet homes. 

In addition, these devices are driving adoption of a wider range of streaming products, particularly among advertising-supported Video on Demand (AVOD) platforms in the U.S. 

The Ampere survey found that 34% of Internet users in the US have used an AVOD service such as Pluto TV, Tubi and The Roku Channel in the past month, compared to 17% in Q3 2020.

Usage is growing particularly quickly among younger consumers. In Q3 2020, only 9% of 18- to 24-year-olds had watched AVOD services, compared to 30% in Q3 2021, Ampere said. 

“The growth in AVOD usage partly reflects how expensive the streaming market is becoming,” Modha noted. “The fact that younger audiences are now engaging with AVoD will be welcome news for platform owners and will make the services even more attractive to brands.”

LONDON—New research from Ampere Analysis shows that advertising supported streaming services continue to be the fastest growing streaming category, with a quarter of US Internet users now relying on a mix of Advertising-funded Video on Demand (AVOD) and Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) services for their entertainment. 

That is up from 15% in Q1 2020. 

But Ampere also found that AVOD viewers tend to be older and less affluent than their SVOD counterparts and tend not to stack multiple SVOD services, preferring traditional pay TV packages. 

In the study, older users (age 55-64 years old) were the fastest growing age bracket of AVOD viewers, with a 7-percentage point increase in AVOD uptake among the group in the last year alone. 

This was also the fastest growing age bracket for SVOD but due to the greater maturity of the SVOD market, saw just a 3.5 percentage point growth in the last year.

Commenting on those trends, Tom Bell, analyst at Ampere noted that “we can see the appeal with older audiences at present, but AVOD services will need to compete more directly with the content on SVOD if they want to attract the younger, more affluent audience already familiar with SVOD.”

The Ampere’s analysis of catalog data also showed that content exclusivity is key difference in strategy between AVOD and SVOD platforms, with SVOD services relying more heavily on original content and AVOD services focusing on the building up large libraries of content as a way to bolster consumer perceptions.

Their data shows that US AVOD catalogs are large – but are primarily made up of older, non-exclusive titles. While SVOD services typically rely on their vast catalog of exclusive titles to increase the quality and popularity of their content offering, this is not the case for AVOD services. The quality and popularity of AVOD catalogs is driven mainly by non-exclusive content, with their large catalogs made up of a much higher proportion of titles from studios which are also licensed to other services. 

“As studios are reserving an increasing proportion of their content for their own platforms, AVOD platforms are beginning to follow suit and commission their own originals,” Bell said. “While content exclusivity remains a key difference in strategy between AVOD and SVOD platforms, these early moves into original commissioning bring AVOD players a step closer to increasing their catalog exclusivity and quality and differentiating themselves in a crowded market.”

In its analysis of content libraries, Ampere found that all major SVOD services in the US offer some content that is available on AVOD for free.

Amazon, Hulu and Peacock have a significant amount of content that is also available via AVOD services. In total, 12% of titles on SVOD are also available on a free AVOD platform in the US. However, a small number of platforms account for the majority of the overlap between SVOD and AVOD. Amazon Prime Video has the greatest overlap with Fox-owned AVOD service Tubi, with 6,600 titles shared between the two services; over 90% of these are lower-value movie content. This is followed by NBCU-backed Peacock, with 715 titles available free on Tubi, with the majority of these also available via Peacock’s free AVOD tier.

Looking ahead, the AVOD players are starting to move into original programming to differentiate their catalogs and reduce reliance on licensed content, Ampere reported. Roku, Vudu, Crackle and IMDb TV have all begun to commission original programming, focusing primarily on Documentary and Comedy titles. Rival service Tubi has also committed to original productions, targeting 140 hours of new original content in late 2021.

“As studios are reserving an increasing proportion of their content for their own platforms, AVOD platforms are beginning to follow suit and commission their own originals,” Bell said. “While content exclusivity remains a key difference in strategy between AVOD and SVOD platforms, these early moves into original commissioning bring AVOD players a step closer to increasing their catalog exclusivity and quality and differentiating themselves in a crowded market.”

LONDON—As consumers abandon the pay TV bundle, new research finds that many people are signing up to large numbers of SVOD services, a trend that bodes well for the streaming business but raises long-term questions about costs and subscriber churn. 

A new survey from Ampere Analysis of consumer behavior in the U.S. and Canada found that more than half (52%) of households in the U.S. now have access to three or more SVOD subscriptions, a group the researcher calls “super stackers,” up from 45% in Q3 2020. Almost three in ten (29%) have access to five or more services in the U.S. 

Original content is driving the trend for SVOD stacking, especially in the U.S. where almost half (49%) say original content is the main reason they subscribe, compared to 38% in Canada.

Engagement with specific services also differs between countries. While uptake of Netflix is comparable in both markets, 61% of respondents in Canada report watching Netflix in the last month, compared to 43% in U.S. 

Higher levels of competition among streamers in the U.S. has meant that consumers are now spending less time watching content on each of the services they have access to, Ampere also found. 

The survey reported that there isn’t much difference in the daily use of social media (71% in the US versus 69% in Canada). 

But U.S. respondents are much more likely to say social media is important to them (54% vs. 45%) and Internet users in the U.S. are more likely to see watching TV as a communal activity, with 48% respondents saying it is important to them to watch TV with other people in their household. This up from 42% in Q1 2020, most likely driven by increased time indoors due to the pandemic. 

TV is also seen as an important driver of conversation in the U.S., with 56% respondents saying TV gives them something to talk about with others, compared to 49% in Canada.

Annabel Yeomans, senior analyst at Ampere Analysis says: “As we’ve seen in Europe, there are some big differences in the way people consume TV depending on where they live. In the U.S., TV is a much more important part of daily life and plays a greater role in social interaction than in Canada. Competition among streaming services is also more significant in the U.S. than in Canada. In the last six months, we have seen that this not only impacts stacking rates, but also the growing demand for quality original content as streamers battle to engage subscribers and reach new audiences.”

Ampere interviewed 4000 Internet users aged 16 to 64 in the U.S. and 2000 in Canada as part of a global study carried out twice yearly of 46,000 adults. 

LONDON—As the streaming wars rage on, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu have enacted new strategies designed to entice older consumers (35+) by producing programming in genres that are of more interest to them—most notably, drama, documentary and crime & thrillers.

According to a new study from Ampere Analysis, younger SVOD subscribers are reaching a saturation point. However, 55% of consumers who don’t engage with VOD in a typical day are aged 45-64. Rather, many are keeping with their linear TV habits. A reported 50% of medium linear TV viewers (watching two to four hours per day) are over 45 years old, while 57% in the same age group are classified as high linear viewers (more than four hours a day).

This is inspiring the larger push in producing programs that are of more interest to those older consumers.

Documentaries, drama and crime & thrillers are among the most popular for consumers over the age of 35. And now, these genres are in the top five of commissioned projects by VOD players. For example, in March, Netflix ordered more documentary titles than any other genre, with more than half of those described as true crime.

Keeping up this investment into factual and crime & thriller content is one of the keys to persuade older viewers to make the switch to streaming, per Ampere. They should also work to expand their sports-related content (something Amazon Prime Video is already pushing with the NFL) and, on a global scale, more local language programming is needed in markets like France, Germany and Japan.

“The fastest growth in uptake of Video on Demand viewing is now in the 35-44-year-old age bracket,” said Minal Modha, principal analyst, consumer research lead at Ampere. “Nearly twice as many in this age group are now high VOD viewers compared to two years ago. The laser-like focus on matching commissioning strategies with the favorite genres of the older demographics in question is evident, but to more fully compete with linear TV players, local language content is going to be key, as will some sports content, be it live or ancillary.”

For more information, visit www.ampereanalysis.com.  

LONDON—The cost of sports piracy has been revealed via a new report from Synamedia and Ampere Analysis, with as much as $28.3 billion in new revenue being available to service providers and rights holders each year if they are able to reduce sports piracy.

The report, “Pricing Piracy: The Value of Action,” uses a model that evaluates how different illegal viewers respond to anti-piracy measures and identifies the demographics and characteristics of those illegal users who are most likely to convert to legal services.

By understanding the motivations of those who access pirated streams, the report says that service providers can target those most likely to switch—aka “the converter cohort”—by implementing disrupting streams as well as providing them with incentives. Of more than 6,000 sports fans in 10 markets, Ampere found that 74% are willing to switch from illegal streams if a legitimate alternative is available and illegal streams become unreliable.

This converter cohort tends to be younger and is often families with young children, the report finds, with them watching as many as 10 or more different sports on connected devices. As many as 40% of the converter cohort would subscribe to OTT streaming sports services, while the remaining balance would opt for traditional pay-TV, particularly those offering exclusive sports rights. More than half of the converter cohort actually already pay for legitimate services (57%), while 52% pay for pirate services.

To convert pirate customers to legitimate services requires service providers to address the reasons that they sought illegal services out to begin with. Per the report, these include flexible access without complex installations or long contracts; ease of use; availability on every device in any location; and, for OTT services, a price point that is lower than traditional pay-TV services with premium sports tiers included.

If able to access this new revenue, Synamedia and Ampere estimate that of the $28.3 billion, about $22.9 billion would be split among pay-TV providers and $5.4 billion would be for OTT sports streaming services.

For more information, the full report can be downloaded here.

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—It’s becoming increasingly difficult to stream all the content you want with only one or two streaming services. The licensing of studio content to third-party platforms (i.e. Netflix) has pulled back as new services like Disney+ and HBO Max debut from major studios, leading households to add more streaming services if they want to have access to some of the content they previously had, as well as popular new titles.

This is according to a new report from Ampere Analysis on the U.S. and European subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) markets. Ampere finds that the average U.S. streaming household now subscribes to four different SVODs.

Over a 12 month period (Q3 2019-Q3 2020), the number of U.S. SVOD contracts shot up from 169 million to 308 million, impacted in large part by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. In that time, new services made inroads—Disney+ added 40 million U.S. subscribers, while other new streamers Peacock and HBO Max brought in a combined 45 million.

Per Ampere’s findings, the typical U.S. household now has access to 90,000 hours of content, roughly equal to 10 years of continuous playback.

But there’s a give and take to that number. The focus on direct-to-consumer content from major studios is drying up the content the likes of Netflix and Amazon can license for their own services, which is causing their libraries to shrink. Amazon, which has the largest catalog in the U.S., has lost 6,000 hours of content since Q3 2019. Hulu, meanwhile, has lost 12,000 hours since Q3 2018.

“Consumers will have more access to high-quality content than ever before as new and existing services compete to produce more original content,” said Alexios Dimitropoulos, research manager at Ampere. “However, as studios continue with their direct-to-consumer strategy, the golden age of access to cheap content is coming to a close.”

Additional findings from the Ampere report show that households with young children are more likely to have more SVOD services. A U.S. family with elementary-age children has an average of five streaming services. Those with Disney+ also are more likely to have more SVOD services, but ones with smaller content catalogs, like ESPN+, which can be bundled with Disney+.

For more information, visit www.ampereanalysis.com. 

LONDON—As the streaming market continues to find its footing, what new streaming service you subscribe to may have something to do with what age group you fall under, according to a new report from Ampere Analysis, particularly when it comes to two of the newest platforms—Peacock and HBO Max.

Ampere took a look at the two newest streaming platforms since their debuts—HBO Max launched in May, Peacock in July. Results showed that at the time of the report (August/September), 8% of U.S. internet households had subscribed to HBO Max and 7% were using Peacock. But an interesting part of the results was that the two services tend to be favored by different age groups.

HBO Max subscribers are 50% more likely to be in the 25-44 age bracket than the sample average, which mirrors the demographics of traditional HBO subscribers. For Peacock, their primary market is 35-44 year-olds, but 19% of their audience is over the age of 55, compared to just 6% for HBO Max.

The price of the services is also creating a divide between who subscribes to them. HBO Max, at $14.99 per month, is one of the more expensive streaming options available currently, resulting in 69% of its subscribers earning a household income of $51,000 or more. Peacock, meanwhile, offers multiple price options, including a free ad-supported tier, and two premium content subscriptions with ads ($4.99) and without ($9.99); 54% of Peacock subscribers earn more than $51,000 household income.

“Peacock’s early adopters show that it has been successful in converting broadcast channel audiences—who are an older demographic and typically more difficult to convert—into SVOD subscribers, allowing it to play in an arena that is generally less competitive,” said Annabel Yeomans, senior analyst. “HBO Max has yet to diversify its audience away from that of the HBO premium channel—whose mix of high-end drama, comedy and documentaries have a particular demographic appeal—but the array of new family and scripted series are aimed at doing precisely this.”

To Yeomans’ point on content, the Ampere report showed that comedy content was the big draw for both services—most important for Peacock subscribers and second for HBO Max’s audience. Planned content is focusing around comedy as a result (40% of upcoming content for Peacock, 31% for HBO Max). HBO Max does have plans to expand among families and younger adults with content from Looney Tunes, Sesame Street and DC Superheroes.

“Nonetheless this is an already crowded market with strong competitors like Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and Apple TV+, so while increasing the diversity of catalogues and quality of original content will be key to driving scale, playing to each services’ brand and audience strengths should also not be forgotten.”

For more information, visit www.ampereanalysis.com.

LONDON—While pay-TV has been experiencing historic lows in the U.S., the global pay-TV market shows that it’s not all doom and gloom. According to a new report from Ampere Analysis on the second quarter of 2020, bellwether pay-TV companies throughout the world added more than 3.1 million subscribers.

Ampere reported on more than 70 companies for the study. This bellwether group of companies accounts for more than half of the world’s 1.1 billion pay-TV subscribers.

Of the bellwether companies that reported to Ampere, 44% saw growth in Q2 2020, adding nearly 7 million subscribers. The remaining 56% saw a loss of 3.9 million subscribers, which brought the quarter to a net growth of 3.1 million subscribers. 

The U.S. market led losses, with 1.4 million dropping their subscriptions across the bellwether companies, despite slight growths from Charter and Dish. China, on the other hand, saw the most net additions among its bellwether companies with a net gain of 3.1 million. The rest of the world’s bellwether pay-TV operators lost around 1.1 million net subscribers.

In comparison to the first quarter of 2020, Q2 total pay-TV subscriber totals were 0.5% higher, this despite the loss of premium content like live sports and other increased economic pressures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, if you were to remove the three most populous nations from Ampere’s report—China, India and the U.S.—that growth would only be 0.1%.

The losses in the U.S. have been an ongoing trend, with Ampere reporting that U.S. bellwether companies have lost 6.3 million net subscribers in the last four quarters.

Some other country notes shared by Ampere show that Canada experienced its second largest combined quarterly pay-TV subscriber loss in Q2 2020. This was offset by growths in France and Spain, which had their largest bellwether net additions in more than a year.

Proportionally, Ampere says that Australia was hit the hardest in Q2 2020, followed by Denmark, the U.S., Canada, Brazil and New Zealand all having posted losses. Spain had the largest percentage growth in Q2 2020, followed by Russia, Romania, India, China and France.

“While some countries are seeing pay-TV subscriptions suffer due to the COVID pandemic, particularly caused by the transient loss of sport, there is still growth in the market, driven partly by bundling of services and by emerging markets,” said Toby Holleran, senior analyst at Ampere. “Cord-cutters in a number of developed territories like Canada—whose pay-TV market continues to mirror its North American neighbor—are being replaced by newer TV customers in emerging markets, leaving the markets as a whole stable. But there is a little growth left even in some developed nations such as France and Spain, which are bucking the trend of stagnation in Western territories.”

For more information, visit www.ampereanalysis.com.  

LONDON—It could be awhile before we see new seasons of popular shows like “Stranger Things,” as Ampere Analysis highlights that scripted TV shows are currently facing greater COVID-related production delays than unscripted content, and that genre also plays a factor into just how long these shows may take to get to air.

As many productions are adapting to the new realities of on-set production that adhere to COVID safety protocols, unscripted content has been able to adapt to new production circumstances faster than scripted because of their shorter overall production time—two months compared to 11, on average. This will likely mean that many scripted programs will be facing delays well into 2021.

Things can differ depending on genre. Ampere reports that scripted dramas or romances can often be expedited, but for genres with lengthy post-production periods, like sci-fi, action-adventure or horror, it is expected to have an impact on when they can wrap things up.

“COVID-19 has hit the production of high-quality, scripted content most severely, and producers will be fighting delays well into 2021,” said Olivia Deane, analyst at Ampere Analysis. “Linear programmers know that viewers won’t accept poor quality content and repeats indefinitely, and they will lose consumers to both broadcast and on-demand competitors if they don’t address the situation fast.”

As a result of this delay, the amount of unscripted programs has risen during the pandemic. The percentage of unscripted evening and primetime programs in the U.S. and U.K. has recovered and surpassed (nearly 30%) of what it was pre-COVID, while scripted content has yet to make it back to its pre-COVID levels.

Ampere also sees an opportunity for independent studios that have scripted projects already in the pipeline, but it may be hard to meet the demand for new content as these indies still face their own delays. 

For more information, visit www.ampereanalysis.com.