The video industry today is fundamentally different to what it was in its early days when SVOD dominated the landscape. Subscription fatigue and over stretched budgets have caused churn rates to increase and providers have been forced to adapt monetization models in response to changing consumer preferences.

AVOD is surging in popularity, linear format services in the form of FAST are gaining traction, and data shows that viewers, particularly younger viewers, are increasingly open to TVOD (Transactional Video-on-Demand) and PPV (Pay-Per-View) options.

Hybrid business models combining subscription, advertising, and transactional elements have become popular as video services try to combat churn and offer audiences as much choice as possible in ways to watch content.

Another approach gaining in popularity is "freemium" tiers which aims to attract a wide audience by offering free content with ads, while generating additional revenue through premium content behind a paywall. With so many possible permutations in business models, it’s become increasingly difficult for video services to know which model or combinations of models is right for them individually.

Evaluating the Different Models with Audience in Mind
AVOD’s primary appeal to viewers is that it allows free or lower cost access to content. This is of course more appealing to some consumers than others which is why when you weigh up the merits of the different business models, it’s critical to do so with the target audience in mind. Viewers with higher disposable income often lean toward subscription services, while those with tighter budgets, or who are simply more tolerant of ads, may prefer ad-supported options.

So, when factoring in whether SVOD or AVOD is a better option, or perhaps a blend of the two with a premium tier offering ad free viewing and a reduced cost tier showing ad supported content, you first need to know your audience. Their income, age, and location all play a role in their viewing preferences and spending behavior.

More affluent viewers with higher levels of disposable income are more likely to be attracted to a subscription-based model, while older or lower income users are more likely to prefer ad-based services. Viewers in some regions such as the US are also much more willing to accept ads than others.

The type of content being shown also helps determine which model works best. Exclusivity and high-profile series help justify a subscription, live events and blockbuster film releases can work well with TVOD/PPV, while repeat content and more casual viewing works better on ad-funded services. Viewers may well be happy to pay for one or two subscriptions for premium content then prefer to add some AVOD or FAST services to the mix for more relaxed viewing and to access old favorites.

Squeezing More Juice
There’s an underlying problem in the video industry that at the highest level, most engaged users don’t necessarily pay any more than low engagement users. By enabling providers to offer new types of monetization options on top of a free or basic subscription package, the hybrid business models that we’ve started to see emerging in the past year or two help to address this issue.

So, while services need to assess key factors such as current market and trends in consumer behavior, target audience demographics, and the type of content that will feature, to determine which business model is most suitable, it’s also important to consider which model strategy allows the maximum amount of money to be obtained from the most engaged users.

One way to do this could be to differentiate on release windows. Engaged viewers may be willing to pay extra for early release of a particular title. Another approach may be to determine release dates by pricing tiers: a viewer with a basic package is made to wait longer for new releases, while a premium package subscriber gets immediate access on the official release date.

The best way of monetizing a consumer base is to create multiple tiers that serve to maximize revenue from different user segments. This way, you can make the most money out of the consumers who are the most engaged and most interested in your service. Ultimately, monetization isn’t just about deciding which business model is best, but must also be about developing an upselling strategy. This mindset has got to be part of the long-term strategy for any video service.

Multi-Model Future
If it’s not already there, the industry is heading toward a multi-model future where video providers will need to continuously experiment with combining multiple models and strategies. If a particular method or blend of models isn’t paying off, providers will need to quickly switch tactics.

To succeed in this environment, video services will need to be flexible and modular in design. For providers willing to experiment and innovate, the blending of models opens the door to a more sustainable and profitable future.

BOSTON—Brightcove has announced that Canela Media is using Brightcove’s technologies to power its streaming operations.

Reaching more than 60 million uniques, Canela Media delivers content to U.S. Hispanic audiences. The company has more than 35,000 hours of content and has launched a AVOD platform Canela.TV. They selected Brightcove to further expand their reach and ad revenue, the companies reported.

“Brightcove is a leader in the space so expanding our relationship was a natural choice. Brightcove’s modular, API-driven architecture allows for scalable integrations across their suite of products that can quickly be brought to market as Canela Media expands our vast content offerings,” said Peter Gonzalez, CTO at Canela Media.

Gonzalez added that Canela is “already taking advantage of Brightcove’s server-side ad insertion (SSAI), video transcoding, and content distribution capabilities to expand our reach and engagement with viewers. Speed to market is essential and Brightcove’s scalable and proven capabilities, backed by expert professional services, are helping Canela add new features to our Direct-to-Consumer applications, fostering innovation that delights our viewers.”

For more information, visit Brightcove.com.

DALLAS—An increasing number of U.S. internet households are characterizing themselves as “cord cutters” according to Parks Associates' latest research from its Video Services Consumer Insights Dashboard.

According to the report, 56 million (46%) of U.S. internet households are “cord cutters,’ while 12 % are “cord nevers,” who have never subscribed to any sort of traditional pay TV.

The Dashboard research service tracks adoption trends and shifts in the video services market, including households who are disconnecting in favor of free-to-air broadcasts or online video services.

Service providers are adapting by offering competitive pricing, bundling options, and hybrid monetization strategies. The rise of ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services shows the demand for lower-cost alternatives, and subscription-based platforms continue to experiment with tiered pricing and content exclusivity to retain customers.

"Cord Nevers represent a unique opportunity for streaming providers," said Jennifer Kent, Vice President, Research, Parks Associates. "By definition, this segment of the market has not paid for traditional pay TV, but streaming services have found a way to monetize a segment that has not previously valued subscription video or has grown up in a streaming-first market, with different conceptions of what subscription video should be."

For leading streaming services, many consumers prefer the basic tier with ads over the more expensive premium tier with no ads; as of Q3 2024, 59% of subscriptions across the eight leading SVOD services are basic tier with ads subscriptions:

• MAX (formerly HBO)
• Netflix
• Disney+
• Discovery+
• Paramount+
• Prime Video
• Hulu
• Peacock

To achieve profitability and strike a balance for consumers, many of the most popular services now operate under a hybrid model, offering both ad-free and ad-supported plans to viewers. Ad-based tiers are cheaper for consumers and more profitable for businesses, making them a win-win for both parties, according to the researcher.

"Consumers are worn down from continued spending increases in streaming, while years of high inflation are driving consumers to pare down accordingly," Kent said. "This only intensifies the competition among streaming vendors and will fuel more growth of subscription tiers with ads and free ad-based services."

As content creators, aggregators and distributors continue to finagle their respective paths around the constantly changing video-consumption desires of global audiences, the race to monetize content and engage audiences with relevant advertising might be getting some much-needed help from the ad tech vendors.

Part of the need for advanced technology solutions is driven by the tremendous growth in ad-supported streaming, whether via free ad-supported television (FAST) channels or ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) tiers offered by subscription services like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. More and more channels and options for viewers have created an interesting dilemma—there’s way more ad inventory available than there is supply. For companies relying on programmatic ad models to fill this inventory, the user experience must be considered.

“With traditional linear TV, the measurement we’re still looking at is ratings,” said Steve Reynolds, president of Imagine Communications. “But, ‘ratings’ has started to evolve into ‘reach’ and ‘frequency’ and pacing of advertising. Delivering the same message to the same household 30 times may not be any more effective than delivering that message five times.”

Balancing Act
Addressable advertising inventory available on subscription services and other media offer the ability to match ad content with very specific viewer demographics, but a careful balance has to be struck to maintain brand quality and avoid doing more damage than good.

“We’ve always had good tools for managing frequency and pacing in the linear world, but we’re now seeing our customers’ need to bring those capabilities into the connected TV (CTV) world,” Reynolds continues. “The targeting enabled by programmatic systems works great.

“The problem is it’s almost too perfect—to the point where advertising can become ineffective if it creates negative viewer perception,” he adds. “To counteract this, we’ve taken the traditional business rules we’ve applied to linear TV for years, like frequency, category separation and brand safety rules and incorporated them into what we describe as a broadcast-quality digital ad server.”

The system exemplified in this scenario is designed to make life easier for broadcasters and distributors transitioning from traditional selling of ad inventory to converged selling of linear and digital ads. This transition is ongoing, but it’s not new.

In fact, according to a recent report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, “2024 IAB Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report,” three-quarters of CTV advertising is already bought programmatically, much of it transacted through systems offered by suppliers like Imagine, Operative, WideOrbit, Boostr and many others that simplify the sales process and drive revenue growth.

What’s AI Got to Do With It?
Technology is being applied to do more than simply create efficiency. Despite the apparent imbalance between inventory supply and content available to fill it, there are significant efforts to introduce new types of inventory—ones with greater opportunity for branding and viewer engagement—many of which are leveraging AI.

In a recent interview with IBC365, BroadView Software President Michael Atkin said: “[Using AI] you can now do real-time identification of new spots to insert advertising in backdrops that we couldn’t do even this time last year. Every year we get better and better at being able to identify the piece of content. And the better we can identify the user, the better you can target the materials they want to see.”

In fact, recent improvements in AI’s ability to analyze video content has opened up a number of unique opportunities for engagement and new revenues.

In the past several years, major events, especially sports, have begun including new sponsorship opportunities during lulls in game action (think “Playing Through” during NBC’s golf coverage). Capitalizing on this trend, Sportradar, a data and insights company focused on sports analytics and betting, offers an API to broadcasters that pushes real-time game information that triggers on specific game events. Productions can use this data to automatically run branded graphics to celebrate a big home run or touchdown.

AI promises to take this type of “in game” engagement even further.

“We use AI to create a transcript of the commentaries coming from sports broadcasts,” explained Jean Macher, senior director, global SaaS solutions at Harmonic. “We then feed that text into OpenAI to come up with a summary and highlights of the live action.”

This solution, currently still in development, will be able to autonomously create catch-up packages and highlights of big plays during the game, offering further opportunities for audience engagement.

Moving forward, the company hopes to capitalize on GPT 4.0’s next-gen capability to natively analyze video content.

“Now that the AI is able to understand the notion of the passage of time and make inferences based on that content, the hope is that if you combine the video analytics together with the audio analysis, you could achieve decision-accurate inferences,” Macher explained. “This workflow would then feed actionable metadata into the company’s VOS 360 platform to provide contextually accurate ad spot opportunities.”

The Audience Is Still the Thing
With all of these moves toward creating additional, and more relevant opportunities for brands to engage with audiences, regardless of the platform, it would stand to reason that the entire business model has been reimagined. Unfortunately, that’s not really the case.

“The need to be able to make dynamic ad decisions thanks to addressability—and now we’re doing unicast addressability—[has led to] new products coming along like ad servers, like Imagine’s Surefire,” Reynolds said. “But it’s not a fundamental change to the way things are done. The business model still hasn’t changed because advertisers still want to buy audience.”

The battle for improved brand engagement and action associated with this engagement is being fought on the frontlines like never before between agencies/brands and the folks with multiplatform inventory available.

“What we have to do,” Reynolds added, “is flip it 90 degrees and start thinking about the value of the inventory. There’s premium inventory and there’s non-premium inventory. People need to wrap their heads around optimizing the premium inventory on the basis of price and delivery value while optimizing the non-premium inventory on the basis of utilization and getting the highest yield possible out of it.”

Advertisers are seemingly open to the idea of new ways to engage and improve the impact of the impressions they’re getting.

“Dynamic brand insertion is something we do to insert the brand directly inside the video content,” Macher described. “Sometimes called ‘virtual product placement,’ we can create a placement opportunity where you’re going to see a bottle with a specific brand or a billboard with a specific message. We can use AI to analyze the video programming and find those placement opportunities in advance and then dynamically—and frame accurately—stitch that alternate content that now includes the brand placement into the program.”

Fortunately for those trying to balance market pressures like this, a wide range of tools are available to make this process both easier and more efficient. Leading cross-platform digital ad servers such as Google Ad Manager and FreeWheel work closely with other industry suppliers to ensure the products used to manage the sales process are smoothly integrated and ready to help ad sales folks sell more, instead of wasting time on administrative tasks.

This improved communication between the supply side and demand side leverages advanced tech that should lead to a more efficient system that takes everyone’s needs into account.

Samsung said its free ad-supported TV (FAST) and ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) service Samsung TV Plus is now attracting 88 million monthly active users, and that global viewing on the free streaming platform has grown by more than 50% year-over-year.

Samsung explained that the service’s rapid expansion has been fueled by its core U.S. user base of Gen Zers, millennials and Gen Xers, who over-index in the 18-49 demographic that is crucial for advertisers.

Global viewing has also been helped by recent launches in Singapore and the Philippines. An upcoming launch in Thailand will expand Samsung TV Plus’s availability to 30 territories worldwide.

“The success of Samsung TV Plus reflects our commitment to delivering a superior user experience with high-quality content that resonates with consumers,” Salek Brodsky, senior vice president and general manager at Samsung TV Plus, said. “When we embarked on this ambitious journey, our vision was to offer a premium streaming alternative that was both simple to use and free. The strategic bets we made nearly a decade ago have established a strong foundation for a service now enjoyed by 88 million streamers each month, and the path ahead is bright and promises continued growth well into the future.”

Currently Samsung TV Plus offers a wide range of genres with more than 3,000 channels and tens of thousands of on-demand options.

In addition to the global linear TV viewing growth, the free streaming platform also reported that global AVOD viewing surged more than 400% year over year.

“As the ad-supported streaming ecosystem continues to surge in popularity, Samsung TV Plus has emerged as a clear favorite among viewers across key demographics, with advertisers in prime verticals already leveraging its immense opportunity,” Samsung Ads VP, Head of Ad Sales and Operations Michael Scott said. “With today’s announcement, it’s evident that our viewers continue to be super leaned-in and engaged, choosing to return time and time again. For advertisers looking to drive outcomes and prove results, Samsung TV Plus brings together the best of TV and streaming to offer an effective and measurable performance-driven solution.”

As streaming services struggle to boost profits by raising prices, a new Parks Associates study has found more streaming consumers are opting for basic tiers with ads over more costly, ad-free premium tiers.

Overall, the Parks survey found that ad-based tier subscribers account for 57% of the user bases of the eight leading streaming services, even though those subscribers complain about poor user experiences with long ad breaks and about seeing the same commercials far too often.

“Ad-Based Streaming: Consumer Demand & Engagement,” a Quantified Consumer study of 8,000 U.S. internet households, examines why ad-based services are experiencing a surge in adoption, gauges which services are the most popular and examines household sentiment towards the ad-based experience.

The research reveals that on average, ad-based tier subscribers account for 57% of the user bases of the eight leading streaming services: Max, Netflix, Disney+, Discovery+, Prime Video, Paramount+, Hulu and Peacock, according to Parks Associates’ consumer survey work.

“Many video streaming services, needing to boost profits, continue to raise prices and have rolled out ad-supported plans to give subscribers options,” Parks Associates Research Analyst Sarah Lee said. “In many cases, these ad-based tiers are more profitable for businesses, adding urgency to the need to improve the ad experience for their subscribers.”

While cost is an important factor, the researchers stress that the embrace of ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) services goes beyond just saving money. Roughly one-fourth of current AVOD subscribers have adopted this tier to save money, while a similar share of subscribers were attracted by a bundle or a promotion. Additionally, many consumers see the low-priced ad tiers as a low-risk way to try a new service or re-subscribe to one they churned away from.

The Parks research also shows that the end-user experience needs improvement. Users commonly report that the same ads repeat too many times, ad breaks are too frequent and long and the content stops but no ads are shown.

“As services continue to raise prices and viewers shift to ad-supported tiers out of necessity, it is critical that services improve the ad-based experience or risk losing subscribers and the ad revenue that comes with it,” Lee said.

Parks Associates will share this and additional streaming video consumer research at its upcoming Future of Video: Business of Streaming conference, Nov. 19-21 at the Marina del Rey Marriott in Marina del Rey, California.

LONDON—Fox Corp.’s free streaming Tubi has launched in the U.K. with an offering of around 20,000 free movies and TV. 

With nearly 80 million monthly active users, Tubi has emerged as the fastest growing U.S. streaming service since its debut on the Nielsen Gauge just over a year ago. Recently, it tied Disney+ in total viewing time according to Nielsen data cited by Tubi.   

“Tubi has spent the last decade honing our approach to vast, free and fun streaming in North America, and we feel that now is the perfect time to bring that recipe to UK audiences,” said Anjali Sud, CEO of Tubi. “We are launching with one of the largest and most diverse content libraries in the UK, designed to indulge viewers in everything from blockbusters to original stories to hidden gems. Most importantly, we’re committed to listening to what resonates with UK fans, and bringing them more and more of what they love.”

Tubi will launch with over 20,000 movies and TV episodes on-demand, featuring curated content from major global distributors such as Disney, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, and Sony Pictures Entertainment as well as a robust slate of exclusive Tubi Originals. Tubi’s content library in the UK pairs some of the best Hollywood films with modern British classics, and offers series with well-known UK TV franchises alongside new areas of discovery – from Bollywood and Nollywood to Arthouse Cinema.

“At a time when traditional programming feels homogenous and when finding what to watch feels like a chore, Tubi has been effective at delivering delight beyond the monoculture with content that appeals to diverse and vibrant fandoms,” said David Salmon, executive vice president and MD of international at Tubi. “We believe that we can build a brilliantly broad, culturally ambitious offering that puts UK audiences back at the center, and makes it fun and easy to enjoy great entertainment from around the world.” 

NEW YORK—Modern Luxury Media has launched M/LUX, a new ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) streaming video platform, Modern Luxury said today.

Content creators covering stories across a range of luxury lifestyle topics, such as travel and adventure, art and culture, home and design, fashion and beauty and food and drink, are providing the programming for the new platform, it said.

Modern Luxury Media, the company behind the platform, currently reaches an audience of 50 million people with its print and digital properties. At launch, M/LUX is accessible to an audience of more than 150 million households via Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Vizio WatchFree+, Samsung, MLUXnetwork.com and the M/LUX app, which is available for iOS and Android, it said.

“M/LUX offers luxury enthusiasts elevated storytelling focused on a luxury lifestyle and iconic brands,” said M/LUX COO Heather Lacouture. “As we continue expanding our content offering, we’re thrilled to forge partnerships with the world’s premier luxury lifestyle creators and brands, fostering a trusted environment that promises an unparalleled experience.”

Modern Luxury will integrate and promote M/LUX content across its entire media portfolio, the company said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

SAN FRANCISCO—A new Samba TV study argues that millennials comprise a crucial demographic for ad-supported streaming services and that the group, which covers over 72 million U.S. adults with more than $2.5 trillion in spending power, are more open to ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) streaming services than other generations. 

"Millennials are the generation that grew up on cable and were first to cut the cord, and have revealed themselves to be a core audience on AVOD and FAST platforms," said Samba TV Co-founder and CEO Ashwin Navin. "Their willingness to consume ads when streaming is a unique opportunity for advertisers to reach more than 20% of the US population, with more spending power than retiring baby boomers. By embracing an omniscreen strategy that addresses all the platforms where millennials consume video, advertisers can align their campaigns to connect with this hugely impactful audience."

Key findings from the report include:

• 8 in 10 millennials stream TV shows, with 84% of those streamers using Netflix.
• 73% of millennial parents subscribe to a streaming service for just their kids.
• 68% of millennials have a streaming subscription that shows ads, more than any other generation.
• 21% of millennials with a Netflix subscription signed up for the ad tier, with 68% of this group subscribing to the platform after the lower-cost ad tier was released.
• 68% would be likely to change their streaming subscriptions if a current one released a cheaper version with ads.
• 85% look at a mobile device while watching TV.
• 72% would watch live events on top SVOD and AVOD platforms if they were offered.

The full report is available here. 

This survey was conducted online within the United States from August 22-30, 2023 among 2,507 adults in the United States by HarrisX. The sampling margin of error of this poll is plus or minus 2.0 percentage points.  

MIAMI—TelevisaUnivision has announced that it is utilizing Akta’s video platform for ViX, the world’s largest Spanish-language streaming service. 

Akta’s Cloud Video Platform is powering AVOD, SVOD, Live and Fast Channels for ViX, which  offers more than 75,000 hours of on-demand content and over 100 streaming channels, all in Spanish. 

The app is available with two access tiers, one free with ads and one premium plan with a subscription, in the U.S., Mexico, and most of Spanish-speaking Latin America, across all major mobile platforms, connected TV devices, and via the web on vix.com. 

Akta’s turnkey cloud video platform delivers content to all the device platforms, and manages the video workflow, from content ingestion and channel scheduling to playback and monetization via dynamic ad insertion.

“Akta is not only a full-suite solution for video workflow, live streaming, FAST channel scheduling, and dynamic ad insertion, but also has the ability to dynamically and seamlessly scale,” said Michael Cerda, chief product officer of VIX. “ViX is growing fast and Akta has been paramount to our work to date and the Platform’s cloud-native ability to automatically scale the video infrastructure with DRM and Dynamic Ad Insertion was a key criteria for selecting their services.” 

"ViX is not just a streaming service, it's a celebration of Spanish-language culture and entertainment. Akta is proud to be the technology partner to bring technical innovation and cloud video tools for workflow scheduling, streaming and dynamic ad insertion," said Alper Turgut, Chairman of Akta.

NEW YORK—TelevisaUnivision’s global streaming service, ViX is launching 10 new channels in the U.S. on Samsung TV Plus, the TV manufacturer’s free ad-supported TV (FAST) and video on-demand (AVOD) service. 

The launch on Samsung TV Plus in the U.S. marks the first launch of the 10 ViX channels on a FAST and AVOD platform, the companies said. 

With content spanning news, sports, entertainment, novelas, comedies and lifestyle, the new channels include Noticias Univision 24/7, Zona TUDN, Rebelde, Cine de Oro, Aqui y Ahora, Cine de Retro, Galanes. Pequenos Gigantes, Como Dice El Dicho and Las 3 Marias.

“We’re thrilled to expand our partnership with Samsung TV Plus and extend the footprint of our leading ViX channels for consumers to enjoy the best in Spanish-language entertainment,” said Adam Waltuch, executive vice president of global distribution and streaming partnerships at TelevisaUnivision. “This launch builds upon the incredible momentum we’re seeing for ViX and enables us to deliver even more touch points for our audience in all the places they consume content.”

“With hundreds of channels in the U.S. alone, Samsung TV Plus is not only a destination for premium content we know consumers love, but also one of the leading destinations for Spanish language content,” said Takashi Nakano, senior director of content and business development, Samsung TV Plus. “We value our marquee partners like TelevisaUnivision and are thrilled to expand our collaboration that brings even more programming to users that reflects the rich diversity of viewers.”

The new ViX channels add to existing Samsung TV Plus’  TelevisaUnivision offerings, which include Novelas de Romance, Villanos de Novela, JaJaJa and Grandes Parejas. 

The breadth of channels adds to the platform’s year-round multicultural offerings, in addition to content honoring this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month, the companies said. 

HARROW, U.K.—The growth of AVOD revenues for TV series and movies is beginning to slow, but despite the deceleration will reach $69 billion worldwide by 2029, an increase of $30 billion from the forecasted $39 billion this year, according to the Global AVOD Forecast report released today by Digital TV Research.

The United States will account for 31% of the 2029 AVOD total, a decline of 40% from its portion of the total in 2023, indicating other countries are growing faster. Overall, U.S. AVOD revenues will increase by $6 billion between 2023 and 2029, with China adding about half that amount, the forecast said. 

“These forecasts are a lot lower than our previous edition due to lower ad growth and as platforms have delayed and/or scaled back their expansion plans. Most hybrid AVOD-SVOD tiers offered will be in developed markets. Few platforms want to risk antagonizing the investment community by expanding these services into developing markets where the rewards are lower,” said Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research.

More information on the report is available online.

BOSTON—Brightcove has announced that In The Black Network (ITBN) selected Brightcove’s platform for the launch of its AVOD streaming service this October. 

ITBN is a new OTT venture founded and led by former Fox Soul general manager James DuBose. The new network focuses on streaming content that showcases and amplifies Black storytellers and culture.

ITBN will leverage Brightcove’s technology to power its OTT service across all major connected TV devices and operating platforms to deliver its content globally on demand. Additionally, ITBN will use Brightcove’s recently launched Ad Monetization service, designed to help companies maximize ad revenue opportunities.

“In The Black Network is gearing up to be the go-to streaming service for Black creators to share their voices across a wide range of audiences through compelling, impactful, original, and culturally relevant stories,” said Marc DeBevoise, CEO of Brightcove. “We’re thrilled to be a trusted partner for In The Black to help ensure they have the best technological capabilities to effortlessly deliver content at scale while boosting their ad revenue potential.”

“We found an ideal partner in Brightcove when searching for streaming technology that could help launch In The Black Network and evolve with us,” said In The Black Network’s Founder and CEO James DuBose. “They are the best in the industry, and we are proud to work closely with them.”

ITBN will stream an extensive collection of free entertainment content (including sports, music, scripted, drama, talk, family, and feature films) on a dedicated app available on iOS, Android devices, Apple TV, YouTube, Roku, LG, Sony, and Samsung media players with more distribution partners to follow. 

The new streaming service joins a roster of media companies that rely on Brightcove to power their streaming capabilities, including AMC Networks, BBC Studios, Forbes, Rogers Media, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and Reelz.

For more information, visit Brightcove.com.

SAN FRANCISCO—New data from Samba TV shows that linear TV viewing held steady in the first half of 2023 while streaming continued to see strong growth, with binge viewing continuing to play an important role in building streaming audiences. 

Samba TV’s latest State of Viewership report, which analyzed approximately 45 billion hours of linear and streaming during the first half of 2023, found that 96 million U.S. households watched OTT content and that over three quarters (77%) of U.S. adults were streaming content.

The survey also found that almost three quarters (72%) of U.S. adults identify as binge-watchers, and those viewers turned out for the 2023 slate of bingeable shows, with an average of 47% of households watching the whole season of the top bulk-release shows within the first five days.

The report also focused on the new and innovative opportunities for audiences to consume over-the-top (OTT) content via newly-rolled out advertising-based video-on-demand (AVOD) options from streaming leaders Disney+ and Netflix as well as the growth of free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) options. 

These platforms, the researchers said, offer advertisers a better way to reach younger and more diverse audiences, over half of which do not watch traditional cable television. 

“Ad-supported video presents a major growth opportunity. The data clearly shows that consumers are embracing lower-cost, ad-supported streaming options that leverage advanced targeting to deliver maximum value for advertisers,” said Samba TV CEO and co-founder Ashwin Navin. “As audiences shift to streaming, smart advertisers are optimizing frequency and measuring impact to reach the right consumers efficiently.”

While steaming options continue to multiply, the report also found that most streamers rely on a relatively limited number of services. 

Throughout the first half of the year, about half of households watched two or less streaming services, while the majority watched three or less. Despite limitless options of content to watch across platforms, people remain unlikely to watch more than a few services over the course of a six-month period, the researchers reported. 

The researchers highlighted these data points as key findings:  

• Traditional linear television reach remains steady year-over-year, but streaming viewership continues to rise. 
• The average daily reach of linear television increased slightly during the first half of 2023, with about 57 million U.S. households tuning in each day. Despite fluctuations year-over-year, this pace isn’t expected to hold as more and more live sporting events and news programming shifts to streaming, where the majority of younger Americans spend their time.
• Meanwhile, during this same time period, 96 million U.S. households watched OTT content, with over three quarters (77%) of U.S. adults streaming.
• OTT and linear consumption each peaked in January followed by February declines. Linear was boosted by one of its main drivers, live sports. Seven out of the top 10 most watched programs of the half were NFL Playoffs games that occurred in January. 
• Six months after streaming leaders unveiled ad-supported tiers, data shows a strong link between binge-watching and audience retention.
• Almost three quarters (72%) of U.S. adults identify as binge-watchers, and those viewers turned out for the 2023 slate of bingeable shows, with an average of 47% of households watching the whole season of the top bulk-release shows within the first five days.
• While Netflix and Disney+ were the top two platforms in audience stickiness, the majority of streamers increased their retention of audiences in spite of declining reach in the first half of the year. Netflix posted the largest gains in households watching multiple programs across the streamer with a 19% increase from the last half, followed by Paramount+ at 14%.
• Streaming platforms like Netflix are offering a glimpse into how live entertainment content will fare streamed.: 6 in 10 Netflix and Disney+ subscribers said they would watch live events if those services offered more of them.
• Despite drama making up just 8% of programming spend for global streamers, the genre made up more than 50% of the top 50 streaming shows of the first half of the year. Rounding out the top three with over a quarter of the most-watched shows each were thrillers and comedies, typically accounting for drawing the first and third largest portions of original content spend respectively. Crime and docu-style programming, however, came in fourth and fifth, meaning that while these mainstays for original content are still yielding strong viewership, investing in dramas may yield larger audiences.
• Growing AVOD and FAST services present unique and innovative opportunities for advertisers. More AVOD offerings by the likes of Netflix and Disney+ are contributing to consumers opting to watch three or four services as opposed to one or two. 
• 1 in 4 premium streaming video-on-demand (SVOD) subscriptions were ad-supported in 2023.
• Throughout the first half of the year, about half of households watched two or less streaming services, while the majority watched three or less. Despite limitless options of content to watch across platforms, people remain unlikely to watch more than a few services over the course of a six-month period. 
• With 90% of streamers watching AVOD, and more FAST and AVOD offerings coming to market, this number is likely to continue to grow over the coming months.
• Harder to reach younger audiences are embracing these new options. 65% of millennials would consider subscribing to a discounted streaming service if it meant watching ads, while 32% of millennials subscribe to FAST services.
• With consumers looking to cut costs and limit the number of paid services they subscribe to, FAST becomes more and more appealing to Americans, with 1 in 3 U.S. streamers subscribe to FAST services.
• While linear television over-saturates audiences with redundant ads, advertisers should deploy an omniscreen approach to their strategy that embraces new creative like QR codes to connect with multitasking audiences.
• Half of TV viewers who consume the most linear TV are seeing the vast majority of ads (92%), while the other half of TV viewers are seeing just 8% of ad impressions. This means half of Americans were underreached or not reached at all, while the other half were bombarded by over 150 TV ads daily, driving ad fatigue among the overexposed.
• Overexposing audiences poses risks to audiences, with 62% of people saying it takes only 2-5 repeated viewings of the same ad in a month-long period to worsen their perception of the brand.
• Almost all Americans (8 in 10) are plugged into another device while also sitting in front of the biggest screen in the home. One in 5 U.S. adults have made purchases through QR codes shown on a TV ad.

The full Samba TV State of Viewership Report is available here. 

In the ever-evolving landscape of content streaming, VOD providers need to innovate to survive. But this doesn’t just apply to entertaining audiences with a media portfolio of original production, nostalgic archive content, or exciting new acquisitions. In fact, innovation is an intrinsic part of how a VOD platform is culturally positioned and commercially sustained.

While acknowledging the need to explore content monetization, entertainment providers are aware of how important it is to strike a balance. Naturally, there are some inherent challenges involved when putting media that viewers have an emotional connection with alongside commercial messages. This is particularly clear when catering to a Gen Z audience. A recent Vionlabs report found that “62% of the respondents ages 18-24, have abandoned an ad-supported service because of a poor advertising experience”. So how can VOD platforms get the mix right?

Maintaining a Media Equilibrium
The balancing act for entertainment providers lies with keeping two, very different groups happy and doing so cost effectively. The audience wants to gain access to premium shows and movies at a lower price point (or for free) without being irritated by interruptions to their viewing. But in order to facilitate this content bonanza, there needs to be a payoff, and that’s where advertisers come in. 

Get it right, and viewers will stay captivated, and advertisers will see a return on their investment. Get it wrong, and a platform can open the floodgates to major issues, such as negative reviews and user churn. The Vionlabs report also highlights some of the most common issues audiences raised about the AVOD viewing experience. The main complaint viewers had across all age demographics, was directed at adverts that disrupt the story or interrupt the narrative flow.

Delivering to an Engaged Audience
What’s clear is that the current VOD model is unsustainable, the more saturation the M&E market experiences the more platforms are at-risk of user churn. Viewers can only afford so many monthly subscriptions, therefore introducing alternative ways to watch content cost effectively makes sense. Users will accept adverts if they serve their primary objective of enjoying watching content, but if advertising starts to encroach on that enjoyment, then the viewer is likely to reject the service.

Advertisers need an engaged audience. It’s not enough for consumers to tolerate commercial messages, they need to strike a chord. To ensure that viewers stay receptive during ad-breaks, the positioning, consistency, and flow of adverts all play an important role. VOD platforms need to delve into the intricate dynamics of both consumer perceptions and interactions with these messages. 

Contextual advertising placement relies on several factors, such as content duration, scene changes, mood and emotional range. In order for the advert’s message to land effectively, context is key. But getting this right while trying to dynamically process thousands of hours of media assets, is not easy.

Ensuring a Seamless User Experience
AI and ML innovation is advancing at a rapid pace. Content processing workflows can analyze consumer mood and delve into the depths of long-form, video-audio files. By doing so, streaming services and entertainment companies can create immersive viewing experiences that incorporate well-placed adverts. 

Contextual advertising leverages recent developments in computer vision and machine learning, to detect natural ad-breaks both accurately and efficiently. This ensures that commercials are seamlessly inserted into video assets, at the most opportune moments in a story. 

If ad-breaks are aligned with natural cue points, rather than interrupting gripping scenes or critical dialogue, viewers are much more likely to engage with them. With the intelligent integration of contextual advertising and frame accurate video workflows, users are spared random interruptions or jarring moments. In this way, AI-driven solutions help facilitate a more symbiotic relationship between revenue generation and user satisfaction. 

Balancing Automation and Human Intuition
By creating a more immersive and enjoyable experience, the dynamic of advertising and content consumption is redefined. But to manage a growing volume of content, media companies need to move away from the complexities of ad-break management spreadsheets and manually referencing timestamps. New AI-powered workflows will now allow users to visualize break points directly within a timeline, enhancing efficiency and precision.  

When frame accurate video workflows are combined with AI content analysis, operators can identify and create dedicated breaks, ranges, and cuts, to ensure advert placement is less intrusive. By using content spanning markers, operators can also set program start and end points, automatically calculate the duration, and identify optimal spots to get the best results. 

Ultimately, experienced content operators need to make the final decisions to ensure the advert positioning flows well from a human perspective. But next-gen technology designed specifically for ad-break placement, can help content operators generate time-based metadata that can be formatted and integrated into downstream ad-insertion systems. 

Managing Content at Scale
The upsurge in AVOD models across multiple regions, certainly means entertainment providers are facing issues around scale. Content preparation teams are already working to process and output vast amounts of media assets. New demands can quickly create bottlenecks, as ad-supported platforms with various requirements are rolled out. For these skilled operators, it’s important that we consider AI technology as a useful assistant, it can speed up the process, but not take over the content preparation completely.

In today's media and entertainment landscape, the potential for growth and profitability is undeniable, and it’s an area where advertising plays a pivotal role. The rise in AVOD platforms blends premium content accessibility with strategic advertising integration. 

Automation is an important part of processing new content for ad-insertion and repurposing existing assets, fulfilling the demands of both precision and speed. But as AVOD models gain traction, the combination of automation and human intuition will ultimately help deliver the right balance for both viewers and advertisers.

NEW YORK—Magna has become the latest major media agency to reduce its 2023 ad estimates with a revised forecast that overall U.S. video advertising will decline in 2023 by 7.9% (compared to a previous estimate of a 5.2% drop). 

Magna also trimmed its 2023 forecast for national TV networks (down 7.7% compared to an earlier 6.8% decline) and local TV (down whopping 22.4%, slightly worse than the 21.4% previously predicted decline). 

AVOD and CTV advertising in the U.S. will grow by 7.2% in 2023 but that represents a significant cut from the previously predicted 21.2% increase. 

Overall the total ad spend for video is now expected to hit $84.0 billion in 2023 in the U.S. while long form video will hit $46.7 (down 5.3% from 2022), followed by national TV networks ($38.3 billion in 2023), local TV ($18.4 billion) and AVOD/CTV ($8.5 billion). 

Magna is still predicting growth for 2024, with total video advertising expected to be up by 7.2%, long form video up 0.2%, AVOD/CTV up 14.3% and local TV up 22.4%. National TV, however, is expected to decline by 2.9% in 2024. 

More data and the full global forecast is available here.  

COS COB, Conn.—Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment is reporting that Monthly Active Users (MAU) for Redbox, Crackle, and Chicken Soup for the Soul advertising-supported streaming services has grown by 50% to 60 million. 

“We’ve had a record-breaking start to the year driven by what we’ve long expected – big movies are beginning to come back,” said William J. Rouhana Jr., chief executive officer of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. “We see success across many of our business areas, including our record TVOD week, a meaningful increase in kiosk rentals, and the growth of our AVOD monthly active viewers to 60 million. As the year progresses, we will see even more movie titles come into the pipeline. More movies mean more rentals and more revenue. As previously announced, we reiterate our guidance for the year of $500 million of revenue and $100 – $150 million in Adjusted EBITDA.”

The company also announced that it had the largest Transactional Video-on-Demand (TVOD) revenue week in the company’s history. The Redbox streaming platform hit record revenue with the premium release of "Avatar: The Way of Water" and the premiere of "Creed III". The simultaneous release of Plane at the kiosk and standard Video-on-Demand (VOD) also contributed to this success.

Redbox kiosks also saw rentals grow dramatically, driven by the beginning of the return of new movies being added to kiosks on a consistent basis. New release rental titles in kiosks rose 102% for a rolling three-month period.

The company said expects this momentum to continue throughout the year due to the release of many new major films as more titles return to theaters. 

NEW YORK—The free-ad-supported streaming platform Tubi is reporting rapid growth in its viewing and audiences for 2022, with a 44% bounce in total viewing time, more than 5 billion streaming hours and 64 million monthly average users. 

Tubi’s annual audience report also included survey data showing that 57% of those surveyed plan to cut paid TV and video services and that the average person is looking to cut 3 out of 5 of their existing video services. About 1 in 4 respondents think the future of streaming will include free services with limited ads.

"As subscription costs continue to rise, nearly 1 in 3 streamers plan to reduce spending on streaming services this year," said Mark Rotblat, chief revenue officer, Tubi said in a statement as the streamer issued its annual audience report, “The Stream 2023: Actionable Audience Insights for Brands.” "With consumers turning to AVOD to complement the select SVOD services they choose to keep, Tubi offers a brand-safe environment for advertisers looking to tap into an incremental, young, diverse, and highly engaged streaming audience."

The research also found that Tubi's audience continues to be young and increasingly diverse. African American and LGBT audiences grew over 50% in 2022, and audience growth exceeded 25% in each major level of household income and the Hispanic demo - according to MRI. 

Additionally, Tubi's core younger demographic remains strong - more than 1 in 3 (36%) Tubi streamers are between the ages of 18 and 34. 

Tubi is owned by Fox. 

Other key findings from the report include: 

• Cord cutting continues and CTV ad spend is on the rise: 3 out of 4 consumers agree that AVODs are a practical alternative to cable and satellite TV. As CTV advertising continues to grow, funding isn't just coming from linear budgets - this year significant digital video, social media, OOH, and traditional media dollars shifted to CTV.
• SVODs curbing password sharing may increase churn: 35% of streamers access other people's digital video streaming services and 45% of streamers want to stream without having an account. SVODs aim to curb these losses by charging accounts shared across multiple households, which is expected to increase churn.
• Effective content and recommendations drive viewer satisfaction: Tubi identified five types of streamers in its research. From "recommendation seekers" to "genre-focused browsers," they all share the same 3 drivers of satisfaction: "a good mix" of content, effective recommendations, and seamless navigation. When it comes to ease of use, the bar is higher for AVOD - 34% of streamers expect ease of use in SVODs while it jumps to 59% for FAST/AVOD.
• Viewers prefer light ad loads and standard ad formats: 51% of streamers are satisfied with 6 minutes of ads per hour. While streaming services experiment with new ad formats, Tubi found that standard video ads are currently preferred by streamers over other formats such as split screen, interactive, or QR code ads.
• Diverse and unreachable audiences drive AVOD spend: As advertisers evaluate the state of streaming TV, more ad dollars are being dedicated to streaming buys than ever before - 4 out of 5 advertisers now regard advertising on streaming television as highly valuable. Growth in monthly active users, the presence of otherwise hard to reach young and multicultural streamers, and the ability to reach hard to find audiences were cited as key drivers for AVOD ad spend.

We’ve witnessed the subscription video on demand (SVOD) market expanding at a remarkable rate over recent years, yet as we approach the end of 2022, there are signs that the market is slowing down. This is hardly surprising given the fact that consumers around the globe are feeling the pinch of inflation and the increased cost of living. 

Conversely, advertising video on demand (AVOD) services are experiencing a surge in demand. We’re also seeing a trend toward multi-tiered hybrid models offering a reduced fee service with limited advertising alongside the standard ad-free subscription service. With the market going through a period of change, is the golden era of subscription-based video-on-demand over? 

Subscription vs. Advertising
Although advertising-based content is growing in popularity, it still may not be the right fit for all video services. Services that adopt a subscription-based model have the benefit of having a predictable monthly revenue stream. 

However, to guarantee that regular income, there is a need to ensure that the content shown is valuable enough to the viewer to justify the subscription fee. The constant need to provide new, high-quality content typically requires big investment. The market is extremely competitive and there is relentless pressure to attract new subscribers and minimize churn.

While AVOD lacks the revenue certainty that comes from having a subscription-based model, it is generally considered easier to build a larger audience with this approach. This is understandable given that you don’t have to convince people to part with any money before they engage with the service. 

However, there is always a risk that ads could annoy viewers enough to make them switch off. This is why it is so critical to get the ratio of ads to content right. After all, ad-revenue is dependent on viewing numbers, and more viewers means higher ad-revenue. 

One thing that has changed over recent years that has helped AVOD to gain a bigger market share is the ability to provide highly personalized ads. If you think back to the days when SVOD services were first taking off and people were switching from linear TV, one of the appealing features of an SVOD format was the lack of ads. 

It’s worth remembering that at the time, ads on traditional linear TV were not able to target the viewer anywhere near as effectively as they do now. Viewers often had to sit through irrelevant ads one after another. But as technology has advanced, ad personalization has become much more effective and sophisticated. This benefits both viewers and advertisers. A well targeted ad is more tolerable for viewers and improves ROI for advertisers because it’s reaching the right consumers. 

Regional Factors
Ad-based content tends to be more popular in some regions than others. When Disney launched its ad-supported service earlier this year, it opted to do so in the US first, where AVOD is particularly popular among viewers. According to a recent report, a higher proportion of viewers choose AVOD services in the U.S. than in other countries. The AVOD market in the US is predicted to grow by $19 billion to $31 billion by 2027. 

Advertising based streaming plays a less important role in Europe than in the U.S., although there are signs that this is changing. Recent analysis shows that revenue from the AVOD market is increasing in all European countries, and was three times higher in 2021 than 5 years previously. 

The U.K. has the highest digital video ad spend in Europe at over $4.4 billion. UK broadcaster, and Accedo customer, ITV recently announced that it is launching a new advertising based platform ITVX that will include numerous AVOD services, as well as additional themed FAST channels.

Looking to the Future
With SVOD’s domination over the streaming market appearing to come to an end, many video providers are launching new services or packages to achieve a business model that is more sustainable for the long term. The most notable of these launches is perhaps Netflix’s introduction of an ad supported plan with a reduced fee that delivers 4-5 minutes of ads per hour of content. 

The Basic with Ads subscriber option is available in 12 countries initially and is likely to expand to include additional countries at a later date. When Netflix first announced its intention to introduce an ad supported package in April, it sent out a clear message to the industry that the market is changing, and relying solely on SVOD may be risky.

Global AVOD revenue is forecasted to reach $70 billion by 2027, so ad-supported models will play a key role in the future of the video-on-demand market. SVOD most definitely still has, and will continue to have, its place in the market. For some services, and for some regions, it will remain the right choice. 

However for other services, it looks like hybrid ad-supported/subscription services may well be the most sustainable model for the long term. What’s clear is that tailoring the model to the region and audience will be crucial for longevity in the VOD space over the coming years.

A new report from U.K. media research firm Rethink TV estimates that global SVoD services will top 1.9 billion subscribers by 2028, in a market worth $171.9 billion.

In its “Subscription Video on Demand Market Forecast 2023-2028,” the researcher examines the impact that the emergence of advertising tiers from the likes of Netflix and Disney+, as well as the increasing popularity of FAST channels will have on the traditional subscription video on demand market. 

“Just prior to releasing last year’s SVoD forecast, Netflix confirmed its first subscriber loss—of 200,000 subs, or around 0.09% of its total,” the researcher said. “This prompted a wave of hysteria, and in the year since, Netflix’s return to growth and confirmation of its advertising strategy has largely set the market at ease.”

Netflix’s ad-supported tier, which launched in November 2022 for $6.99 per month, is part of a boutique of four levels of subscriptions, with premium currently priced at $19.99 per month. Although it didn’t offer specific numbers for the new tier,  the company saw the number of subscribers worldwide increase by 7.66 million in its latest quarter. Disney+ launched its own ad-supported subscription tier for $7.99 per month in the U.S. in December. 

But there’s another threat on the horizon—the increasing popularity of FAST (free-ad-supported TV) services that mimic traditional pay-TV channel EPGs, but without the subscription fees. These services are most often accessed through smart TVs from Samsung, Vizio, Roku, etc. 

This new normal could upend the SVoD market, Rethink says.

“Complicating counting is the fact that we are about to enter a phase where SVoD services have ad-supported customers, AVoD services have subscription tiers, and FAST will undoubtedly start playing with on-demand video. The clock is also ticking until these VoD services have live linear feeds, and Netflix is due shortly to launch its first live stream,” it said. “Disney and Netflix are now in the early stages of their advertising expansion. Both have chosen to price their ad-supported bundles at a slight discount, to ensure that they can maintain their ARPU via the ads served. In time, we suspect that the SVoD platforms could see significant lifts in ARPU via advertising.”

With Netflix, in particular, moving to eliminate password sharing, Rethink suggests that the service offer a free ad-supported tier to which it could move those sharers to. 

“Neither Netflix or Disney have opted for an entirely free tier, supported by a much heavier advertising load,” Rethink said. “This is significant, because the issue of account sharing has raised its head in the past year. With free options, SVoD services would be able to migrate a user from an existing SVoD subscription and into a free account with only an email address and basic account details. This would serve to keep the number of subscribers high, and potentially provide a significant boost, if the estimates of ‘freeloader’ accounts are as high as some in the industry maintain. However, as soon as a payment method is required, the success of converting a freeloader into an active subscriber plummets.

“Netflix has not broken out detail of its conversion rates, but there are nascent third-party estimates of the proportion of new additions that have chosen the ad-based tier,” the researcher added. “The coming quarters will likely provide some insight, via investor call disclosures, but the SVoD platforms will be tightlipped in the meantime.

Rethink says that Netflix will continue to boast about its profitability, especially when compared to competitors which are still operating at a loss, including Comcast, which just reported full year revenues that showed $2.1 billion earnings for Peacock, but was hamstrung by an attributed loss of some $2.5 billion. 

“To this end, ARPUs across the board need to rise, and advertising is going to play a major role in this regard,” it said.

New research from Antenna suggests that the relatively new Netflix ad supported tier is getting off to a slow start, with only 9% of new signups in November of 2022 subscribing to the Netflix Basic with Ads tier. 

The subscription analytics firm Antenna also found, however, that the tier is not, as yet, causing a great deal of cannibalization of Netflix’s existing subs. Only 0.1% of Netflix’s U.S. subs switched to the ad-supported tier in November, according to Antenna. 

Netflix only launched the new tier on November 3 so the data is only a very early indication of consumer reaction to the offering. 

In a blog post, Jonathan Carson, co-founder and CEO of the company noted that “Antenna’s data suggests a modest start. Antenna finds that 9% of Netflix Sign-ups in the U.S. in November were to the “Basic with Ads” plan, making it the least popular of their plan options. In addition to the Basic with Ads Subscribers who signed-up for Netflix, Antenna observed 0.1% of Netflix’s existing U.S. Subscribers switching to the Basic with Ads plan in November.”

Carson added that “HBO Max saw a mild pickup when it first launched its ad-supported option in June 2021. As Antenna previously reported, 15% of HBO’s U.S. Sign-ups were for HBO Max With Ads in its launch month.

 In addition, Antenna found that 0.2% of existing U.S. HBO Max Subscribers switched to the ad-supported plan in its launch month, about double the Netflix switching rate, Carson wrote. “The popularity of the HBO Max With Ads plan did increase over time, accounting for as many as nearly one in three Sign-ups over the course of its first year in the market,” he explained. “Currently, Antenna estimates that 21% of HBO Max Subscribers are to the ad-supported plan. 

Data from the Antenna post was first published in the Wall Street Journal. 

More information on this study and other insights from Antenna is available here. 

As Wall Street hammered the stock prices of major streamers in 2022, free-advertising supported TV (FAST) streaming channels and ad supported streaming services (AVOD) emerged as the fastest growing segments of the streaming business. 

Major streamers like Netflix and Disney who had once been staunchly opposed to advertising radically changed course in 2022 with launches of ad-supported services while long-time advertising funded streamers like the Roku Channel, Fox’s Tubi and Paramount Global’s Pluto TV ramped up their FAST channel offerings.

This could be good for the streaming industry’s bottom line at a time when many streamers are still struggling with hefty losses and slumping stock prices. As new ad-supported streaming tiers from Netflix and Disney+ roll out, Digital TV Research is predicting that global AVOD revenues from TV series and movies will reach $91 billion in 2028, up from $38 billion in 2022.

Meanwhile, S&P Global Intelligence is predicting total FAST ad revenues in the U.S. could approach $4 billion in 2022 and then more double to just under $9 billion by 2026 while Magna Global reported that AVOD/OTT grew by 18% in 2022 to $6.8 billion. By 2027, the big media buying company GroupM is predicting that connected TV advertising will account for one third of all TV advertising in the U.S.  

Less obviously, the trend is important because the rise of FAST and AVOD services will boost the overall ad business. Today’s current bullish prognosis for advertising on streaming service contrasts starkly to the sentiment only a few years ago when many analysts worried that advertisers would be unable to reach younger audiences who are doing most of their viewing on ad-free services like Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max. 

“If you've got such a large population of people who are basically in non ad-supported streaming video services, and have basically opted out of the video advertising ecosystem…it’s a problem for marketers to get their messages out to consumers.that's a problem,” said Walt Horstman, senior vice president and general manager of advanced media and advertising at TiVo. In contrast to those worries,  he now believes that the rise of advertising on streaming platforms will both strengthen the streaming industry and the overall U.S. economy.  

The rise of FAST channels has also been facilitated by the creation of well established digital ad technologies and businesses over the last two decades. Those technologies allow FAST channels and AVOD players to quickly and inexpensively spin up new services and by addressable advertising technologies that allow marketers to finely target consumers and measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.  

The shift towards advertising by Netflix could also help improve the measurement of cross-platform video. The launch of Netflix’s ad tier could get a company that has long been secretive about releasing data to be much more open with advertisers and work more closely with the overall TV and streaming industries to improve measurement. 

For players like Netflix and Disney who launched ad-supported tiers in the fourth quarter of 2022, ad-supported offerings will help them attract and retain budget conscious consumers who are trying to reduce hefty steaming bills. In Q3, for example, researchers at Antenna reported that there were 32 million cancellations of subscription video streaming services in Q3 2022 among the 10 major SVOD services and that the record number of cancellations reduced sub growth to just 3.5%. Another survey from Bango found U.S. consumers are overwhelmed by all the options with 72% saying there are “too many” subscription services available today, according to a new study from Bango.

But it isn’t clear how many extra subscribers Netflix and Disney will be able to attract to their new advertising tiers without cannibalizing existing subs. One study found that nearly one in four Disney subs will switch to the lower-cost ad tier. 

The shift to advertising also comes at a time when the economy and overall ad business looks increasingly shaky. YouTube, Facebook and other major digital advertisers reported serious slowdown in their digital ad business in the last half of 2022, though Magna Global is predicting that VOD/OTT ad business will see 31.6% growth in 2023. How well the new streaming ad players will fare in 2023 if the economy shifts into a recession remains an open question.  

Streaming services that provide ad-supported video on demand services along with traditional subscription-based services will dominate the streaming landscape over the next five years according to a new report from Digital TV Research.

The researcher predicts that global SVOD subscriptions will increase by 428 million between 2022 and 2028 to  reach 1.76 billion, “showing that there is still plenty of growth left,” it said.

With Netflix’s introduction of its lower-tier cost ad-supported streaming service launched last month, two of the most dominant streaming services—Netflix and Disney+—both now offer hybrid AVOD-SVOD services and are expected to continue that dominance through 2028, Digital TV Research said, adding that viewers that subscribe to such hybrid AVOD-SVOD subscriptions will comprise the majority of their subscription bases in five years.  

“We estimate that  Netflix will provide its hybrid AVOD-SVOD tier in 85 countries by 2028, with Disney+  in 91 countries, HBO in 55 and Paramount+ in 56,” said Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research. “These include pan-regional  services in Spanish-speaking Latin America and also in the Arabic-speaking  countries.” 

These four platforms collectively will have 372 million hybrid AVOD-SVOD  subscribers by 2028—or 56% of their total subscriber base.  

Given that Disney+ subscribers in most markets are expected to convert  automatically to the hybrid AVOD-SVOD tier, the platform will have 206 million subs  to this tier by 2028—or 88% of its total. At the other end of the scale, 24% of Netflix’s  total subscribers will pay for the hybrid AVOD-SVOD tier by 2028—or 63 million.  

Murray continued: “Netflix has a large base of SVOD-only subscribers. Most of  these subscribers will remain on these plans, despite the AVOD-SVOD tier being  considerably cheaper. The hybrid tier will appeal most to developing countries  where disposable incomes are lower. The hybrid tier will also be attractive to new  subscribers that do not have legacy SVOD-only subscriptions.” 

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah—The virtual MVPD sports and entertainment streaming service Vidgo has launched a new look, a new logo and a streamlined user experience for the service.   

“We have reimagined what easy access to an affordable streaming service should look like,” said Derek Mattsson, Vidgo CEO. “With Vidgo’s app available on the most popular connected TV and streaming devices – including Roku, VIZIO, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, as well as Android and iOS mobile devices – our subscribers now have unlimited access to their favorite shows, sports and news at home and on the go.”

The company explained that Vidgo’s "new red, white and blue logo pays homage to the great U.S.A. while keeping its promise to offer subscribers the Freedom to be Entertained."

Vidgo's new user experience and recently updated UI with enhanced tile navigation offers a consistent viewing experience across every device and screen, the company added. The improved discovery feature provides intuitive access to favorite content, trending titles and new programming. Vidgo’s advanced search and filter capabilities also enable users to view live and on-demand content by genre, title, popularity, language, geography and more.

Vidgo also announced that it has become the first virtual MVPD to distribute Cinedigm’s content library. The partnership will bring Vidgo subscribers’ access to Fandor, Screambox, RetroCrush, The Bob Ross Channel, Dove, AsianCrush, El Rey Network, Bloody Disgusting, Comedy Dynamics and other services. 

SAN JOSE, Calif.—New research released by TiVo finds that the average number of video services used by consumers is approaching double-digits for the first time in history, with consumers now watching an average of 9.86 video services compared to 8.8 a year ago. 

The new TiVo Video Trends Report also found that ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) services or free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services are being much more widely used as consumers look to stretch their entertainment budgets. 

The report found that AVOD services account for 32% of the overall share of video services used by consumers in 2022, compared to 26% in Q4 2021; and the average consumer is now using three ad-based video on demand services.

While consumers’ willingness to pay for ad-free programming has been an advantage to subscription streaming services in recent years, that trend is now giving way to increased adoption of ad-supported video fueled by a proliferation of free content services or introduction of subscription tiers, the report explained. 

At the same time, a rich-content first experience remains a priority when it comes to discretionary spending. About 7 in 10 of respondents said their video entertainment spending is a moderate to high priority. 

Despite inflation and financial pressures, only 25% of respondents reported reducing their entertainment spending. Three in 10 consumers surveyed said they had purchased a smart TV between Q4 2021 and Q2 2022.

“Entertainment, and specifically video content, is very much a priority for consumers, but if they can get it at a lower-cost, or free, consumers are demonstrating a growing tolerance for more ads as part of the content they consume,” said Walt Horstman, senior vice president, Monetization, TiVo, a part of Xperi, Inc.

Addition finding from the TiVo Video Trend Report include: 

• Hopping around: 8 in 10 consumers said they wish their paid service offered an ad-supported free option, but a quarter (24.3%) of AVOD users admitted to only spending three months watching a new AVOD service until moving onto a new option. Moreover, pay-TV subscribers admitted to hopping between AVOD services at more than twice the rate of broadband-only users.
• Too many options: Finding what consumers want to watch continues to be the number-one pain point for the vast majority, as services and content proliferate. Voice control is more popular than ever, with three-quarters (74%) of respondents who have access to voice search technology using it to help find content faster.
• In the neighborhood: 59% of survey respondents consider local content to be important or very important, with local weather (68%), news (65%) and sports (36%) topping their list of tune-in priorities. Pay-TV subscribers spend a quarter (24.6%) of their viewing time on local content, while broadband-only subscribers spend 16.2% of their viewing time watching local content.
• Cord-cutters come back: 25% of pay-TV subscribers are reported “Pay-TV Revivers” who once cut the cord and resubscribed. TiVo’s research team points out that pay-TV continues to have a significantly lower churn rate than subscription video on demand (SVOD).

More information from the latest Video Trends Report is available here. 

IRVINE, Calif.—The streaming platform Xumo has launched two seasonal channels, Halloween Horrors and Monsters & Nightmares, featuring premium thriller and horror-themed movies.  

Halloween Horrors features a range of predominantly AVOD-exclusive movies, available only on Xumo through fall 2022 and beyond, while Monsters & Nightmares brings dozens of select titles from Magnolia Pictures’ SVOD service through the end of the month.

“As we continue to bring AVOD-exclusive programming as well as best-in-class, licensed content to viewers, these channels fortify our line-up of premium, themed movies for the season,” said Fern Feistel, VP of marketing and content operations at Xumo. “Thriller and horror-themed movies have always been a popular genre on Xumo and adding to that library with two Halloween-specific channels this month is an important focal point that will draw in an enormous audience with ideally timed content.”

Highlights from the Halloween Horrors channel include AVOD-exclusives such as: "The Gravedigger", "Those Who Walk Away", "Hideout", "While We Sleep", and "Homebound." 

The Monsters & Nightmares channel brings select titles from Magnolia’s SVOD service, Monsters & Nightmares, to AVOD/FAST.  Available through October, the channel features dozens of Halloween themed titles, including "All Good Things" and "The Oxford Murders".

The American Internet TV market is a booming landscape and is expected to grow by 60% within the next five years. In turn, OTT TV episode and movie revenues will reach $94 billion in 2026—almost double the $49 billion generated in 2020. Media companies are currently in the midst of an incredibly competitive, and fragmented, market. 

There is a risk that media companies can be left behind if they are not quick enough to react to the changing landscape. However, this is also one of the most exciting periods for the industry, and its potential shows no signs of slowing, which makes this a great time to explore new avenues for growth and broaden horizons in this space.

Owned-and-operated (O&O) services alone are no longer enough for media companies to be successful in today’s streaming environment. To achieve growth, media companies must ensure that they integrate an effective business strategy that puts diversification at the heart of it. If executed correctly, these strategies will unlock greater audience reach and monetization that will empower them to thrive now and in the future. 

In this article, I will outline how to execute a hybrid approach and the key areas of consideration for media companies looking to get a piece of the growing Internet TV market.  

The Opportunities Available
Free ad-supported TV (FAST) linear services have increased in popularity in recent years. We are now seeing FAST integrated within television interfaces, and being made widely available on Connected TV (CTV) app stores.

FAST linear channels are a vital hub for distribution and monetization diversification. They retain the lean-back benefits of traditional linear TV, while enabling valuable new digital advertising opportunities. Through FAST, content providers can unleash the potential to program channels algorithmically, using AI to suit viewers’ tastes and leverage programmatic ad platforms to maximize the value of ad spots. Channels can also be launched quickly and the content fine-tuned in real-time to optimize viewership. When customer demand fluctuates, FAST channels can be scaled up and down. This is a crucial benefit to help keep content providers in control. 

In addition, SVOD services should consider offering different payment options – perhaps lowering the fee in return for some form of advertising – to help cater to audiences across a range of needs. This is a hot topic in the industry, of course, enabling companies to generate new ad revenue that was previously not part of the business model. The price decrease helps cost-conscious customers have more choice, potentially attracting more subscribers over the long-term.

To support this, advertisement-based video on demand (AVOD) is also an enticing avenue. Like FAST, AVOD has also enjoyed significant growth. AVOD viewers in the U.S. are expected to reach 165 million in 2025 and the format can be a great distribution tool for a media company’s content library. AVOD enables substantial ad revenue business, helps companies become more competitive in the market, and funnels O&O services. AVOD is helping fill the void between an ad-free experience provided by subscription services and linear TV giving it the best of both worlds. 

AVOD is now a dominant player in the Internet TV market and brands are pouring money into these services for their user-specific focus: lower number of advertisements versus higher value of commercial awareness among viewers. AVOD’s ability to track user interactions can help make ads more trackable and easier to determine their success. These advanced targeting abilities are precisely what the market is looking for today - both the advertiser and the consumer. 

If implemented successfully, ensuring that media companies focus on content and their technology stack, AVOD will certainly allow content to thrive in the streaming era. 

Ensuring the Right Toolset
To help build and nurture thriving content communities in our industry, streaming providers should ensure they offer the flexibility to support multiple business models that reflect our market and its ever-fluctuating landscape. Solutions must boast capabilities including high-quality OTT application deployment and dynamic playlisting for VOD. There must also be consideration for including support for AVOD and SVOD, which are two services rapidly changing how video is consumed and monetized. However, SVOD requires one workflow, AVOD requires another, FAST channels require another, and the many potential syndication partners require more.

It is important to understand that, to stay ahead of the curve, media companies need the right cross-platform technology to support hybrid business models and multi-partner distribution to execute a successful distribution and monetization strategy. 

With this in mind, streaming providers must ensure they assemble a broad technology stack of solutions to reach their full audience engagement and monetization potential. But at the same time, they need an efficient way of working that avoids the complications of having to deal with many vendors at once, making the workflow harder to manage.

But, if they achieve this, then there is a fantastic opportunity to reach new audiences, grow greater revenue streams, and pave a pathway for long-term success.

First, some good news for advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) providers: as consumers tighten their purse strings amid soaring inflation and recession fears, more people will be cutting down on subscription spending and turning to free, advertising-based options. 

Unfortunately, next up is some bad news: economic headwinds will bring challenges to AVOD providers, too. How they address those challenges – including controlling costs associated with content acquisition and creation, improved content optimization, and weathering the potential disruption of reduced budgets, courtesy of the recession – will determine who will and won’t make it through a downturn.

The upshot is that AVODs must do better with the content that they already have, including finding new ways to optimize how they use and monetize it. There’s plenty of cause for optimism for providers here, however.

Recent reports say that global AVOD revenue growth is already surpassing that of subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD). AVOD revenues for TV are expected to hit $70 billion in 2027, up from $33 billion in 2021. That 112 percent growth is nearly double the rate of SVOD, though SVOD will still maintain a larger market share. The proportion of users who report using an AVOD service has also increased from 34 percent in February 2020 to 58 percent in February 2021.

Big Competition
Market trends clearly indicate that AVOD is on a path for sustained audience growth, with major SVOD providers even launching ad-supported tiers. Netflix recently announced such an idea. “We’re adding an ad tier for folks who say, ‘Hey, I want a lower price and I’ll watch ads,’” co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, said at an advertising conference recently.

Along with YouTube’s move into the ad-supported space this year, joining market leaders like Roku, Pluto TV and Tubi, Netflix’s plans show that AVOD and free ad-supported television (FAST) channels are not a passing fad, but instead are an expanding sector in the digital media ecosystem. 

Of course, it’s possible that inflation and a recession could slow down AVOD’s growth, especially if providers aren’t ready to find new ways to expand the reach of their content – and thus the ROI of that content. What’s more likely, however, is that some providers will thrive, while many others will be forced to close their doors in the face of reduced budgets and increased competition. 

But what will be the most important factor in who wins and who loses as AVOD providers scramble to gain more value from their content and weather cost pressures? Data. 

Big budgets or expansive content libraries will not guarantee success in the coming AVOD wars. They certainly are not requirements of success. What’s crucial is understanding what your potential audience wants, helping them find your content amid the seemingly infinite expanse of online options, and sharing new content at pivotal moments to keep them engaged with the platform. 

Data is key on all fronts, and in many ways is the most important asset an AVOD provider possesses. Platform owners have access to user data — and insights into user behavior — that content creators and licensors can only dream of. Here’s a few ways savvy AVOD providers can use data-driven knowledge to optimize their investments in new content and maximize the profitability of their existing content library. 

1) Find your lane
What is your new or unique contribution to the AVOD ecosystem, whether it’s a series, channel or other product? Perhaps you are providing a 24-hour home for hardcore curling fans. Or relaunching an overlooked series that will appeal to folks who just finished streaming Netflix’s “Stranger Things”. Or defining your platform as the free source for police procedurals from around the world. 

Let the data show you the way. But note, access to normalized, structured data is only step one to achieving these insights. Growth will require the application of artificial intelligence, guided by human experts, to the data to uncover insights and opportunities that you may not even know to look for.  Artificial intelligence and machine learning tools can help spot patterns to seize on unmet market demand and see trends before they become common knowledge. Users will tell you what they want — if you have the tools to listen. 

2) Meet your audience – and negotiate better deals
The success of Amazon Prime among young users is an example of a streaming platform meeting its audience where it is — in this case on Snapchat, TikTok, and Twitch. 

Maybe you want to top Google search results for “police TV” or “What shows are like ‘Stranger Things’,” or take a more traditional approach like advertising during the World Curling Championships. 

Whatever approach you take, you need to know that it’s going to work, especially during tight financial times. Smart use of data – to determine audience interests, demographics, content preferences, and more – can show you where your audience is most likely to be and what messages are most likely to resonate. 

And those insights can do more than point you towards your audience – they can also help you land stronger content deals. Understanding who you’re reaching, what appeals to those viewers, and the reasons why they’re coming to you for that specific kind of content will give you bargaining power. If you know that your viewers prefer 30-minute dramedies that feature a specific actor, and you can point to data that supports that, you’ll know exactly what your next content buy needs to be in order to draw in more viewers – and more revenue.

3) Learn and repeat
Every new viewer added (or lost) accounts for thousands of data points, all of which can help enhance your understanding of your audience and AVOD viewers more generally. 

Providers should be tracking which offerings create loyalty, which programs are trending in what demographic group and during which time of the day, what preferences overlap, and where is your audience watching from — among a million other possible permutations. 

Optimizing offerings based on the factors that the data uncovers will do more than keep your customers happy. It’ll also ensure you know what content types work, uncover potentially hidden revenue streams, and find new opportunities for engagement with your audience – which, ideally, has the added benefit of reducing churn.

Sometimes it can feel like we are drowning in data. However, providers that invest in smart data tools will start to see which metrics are most important to the bottom line and how to use historical data to make accurate projections for future decisions. That’s why data will be the differentiator as we enter uncertain economic times. 

MENLO Park, Calif.—Families—usually the target audience for primetime TV—are losing interest in linear TV for kids and family content according to a survey from Future Today, a provider of family-oriented AVOD services. 

“More families have shifted away from traditional linear TV altogether,” said Vikrant Mathur, Co-Founder, Future Today. “As that has occurred, it’s important to better understand how families are choosing to view content and what ad experiences they find worthwhile, especially as ad-supported video-on-demand viewership in the US surges.”

Key findings from Future Today’s study include: 

More Than 60% Have Cut the Cord Completely
According to Future Today’s research, as an audience, parents who stream kids and family-focused programming are unique, young, diverse, and more engaged than the average streamer. 

Nearly two-thirds (62%) don’t have access to linear TV and 90% say they rarely watch it. Additionally, of the families surveyed, 85% of the parents fall in the 25-44 age range. Thirty six percent are also more likely to identify as Black, while 78% are more likely to identify as Hispanic. Finally, 98% of families polled say they love watching TV and 81% agree that TV is their favorite form of entertainment, making it a key channel for advertisers. 

“For advertisers trying to reach a diverse and engaged audience, buying kids and family-focused inventory presents a rich opportunity,” added Mathur.  

Kids & Parents are Discussing the Ads They See
Future Today found that ads featured in kids and family-oriented streaming programming are engaged with and evaluated across a household, with kids being a key decision maker over purchases and brands.

According to parents, 60% of kids who see ads talk to them about the ads afterwards. This includes broader family-based ads in categories such as Travel, Restaurants, Food Products, Insurance and Auto that are non-kids-centric as parents say 88% of kids who watch these ads are “engaged,” while more than half (52%) ask them to buy what they saw.

“Kids are the CEO of the streaming household,” said Mathur. “If a message resonates with them, they are vocal about it to their parents, influencing purchases and brand equity. For brands that are trying to connect with millennial parents, having a presence on Kids & Family channels not only provides a conduit to the entire household but also sparks conversations that create lasting brand equity. ” 

More than 300 families were polled for the study. 

COS COB, Conn. & OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill.—Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment has announced that the company has completed the acquisition of Redbox Entertainment Inc., creating a combined company offering ad-supported video on demand (AVOD), over 145 free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels, transactional video on demand (TVOD), and a network of over 36,000 kiosks nationwide, all supported by original film and television production and distribution divisions. 

The company expects revenue to more than triple through this acquisition to approximately $500 million annually.

The company also announced the appointment of two key media executives. Galen C. Smith, former chief executive officer of Redbox, has been appointed to the new role of executive vice chairman of Redbox and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. Smith will oversee the company’s future growth plans, including strategic acquisitions. 

In addition, Jonathan Katz has been named president of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. Katz previously held senior executive roles at Scripps Networks, Katz Networks, and Turner Broadcasting. In his new role, Katz will oversee the company’s operating businesses, including streaming services, Redbox kiosks, and original content studios. Smith and Katz will report to William J. Rouhana, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment.

“I’ve been looking forward to the day Redbox would become part of the Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment family – and today is that day. The Redbox brand is a fixture in American entertainment and now joins our powerful portfolio of streaming brands, including Crackle, Popcornflix, and Chicken Soup for the Soul,” said William J. Rouhana, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. “This acquisition gives us immediate scale, growing our film and television library to over 51,000 assets, establishing a broad complement of AVOD, TVOD, and FAST channel services, reaching millions of viewers across dozens of platforms, and adding Redbox’s 36,000 kiosks nationwide, with a customer loyalty program that has over 40 million members. These collective assets create a fully formed streaming business for a new era of digital entertainment that we anticipate will accelerate the growth and profitability of our company well ahead of our original plans. The team at Redbox is incredible and will join an equally talented team across our Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment companies. I’m excited to welcome our new colleagues and look forward to sharing more about our plans for the future.”

Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment expects that the combined company will exit 2022 with a run rate exceeding $500 million of revenue and $100 - $150 million of Adjusted EBITDA and expects to deliver annual run rate cost synergies in excess of $40 million in 2023. 

The combined company also sees numerous opportunities to drive revenue synergies from its complementary assets, including expansion of ad inventory through distribution of its larger content library and production pipeline across AVOD and FAST channels, and increased access to the TVOD window for original film productions. Additionally, the Redbox kiosk network and loyalty program offer a new marketing channel to promote the company’s original content productions, the company said. 

LOS ANGELES—Cinedigm has announced plans for a new AVOD service Cineverse and the roll-out of a major update of their  Matchpoint Platform Suite that will leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to improve the streaming experience. 

The new Matchpoint Blueprint 2.0 will be used to launch Cinedigm’s new Cineverse AVOD service in August, which will bring together 15+ FAST channels and a massive VOD content library. 

“Our incredible engineering team in India has been working hard to maintain Matchpoint’s position as an industry-leading solution for building a streaming video service – one that can deliver content at scale to more than 75 different digital platforms in a fully automated manner – as well as distribute third-party content at half the cost of leading competitors,” said Tony Huidor, chief technology and product officer at Cinedigm.  “We are pleased with the achievements that have been made to-date and look forward to showing how our technology, along with some new innovative features, will enhance the user experience for all of our channels – starting with our forthcoming service, Cineverse.”

The Matchpoint Platform is the underlying technology used to power Cinedigm’s entire digital and OTT business as well as third-party streaming channels operated by Cinedigm. The platform also allows companies to easily launch their own direct-to-consumer streaming services.  

This summer, the company will roll out an enhanced Matchpoint Blueprint 2.0, which offers a robust and cost-efficient application framework to launch advanced full-featured video streaming apps across every major platform, with built-in support for various business models. 

The first streaming service to be powered by Matchpoint Blueprint 2.0 will be Cineverse , an all-in-one streaming channel and the newest addition to Cinedigm's growing portfolio of streaming services.

The service has a massive 46,000 title film & television episode catalog as well as more than two dozen owned & operated streaming brands, the company reported. 

Officially launching in late August, Cineverse will be an AVOD service featuring a broad lineup of more than 15 free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels – both company-owned and from third-party partners. 

The service will include the entire VOD content catalog and selection of FAST channels spanning various genres that are currently part of Cinehouse, a streaming service acquired with Digital Media Rights (DMR) earlier this year. 

Key highlights of the upcoming Cineverse launch include:

• Cineverse will initially launch on iOS, Android, Roku, Samsung and desktop web, with plans to be released on Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, LG, webOS and HTML-5 by the end of year
• A premium subscription option that offers access to additional content as well as with no ads will be available in the Fall, details to be announced
• Cineverse will feature new major Hollywood releases available on a transactional (TVOD) rental basis, details to be announced
• Cineverse will include a channel lineup of over a dozen FAST linear channels with integrated electronic program guide (EPG), offering the ability to browse the catalog on a channel basis
• Through a partnership with audience engagement platform LiveLike, Cineverse will include elements of gamification such as the ability for viewers to earn loyalty points that will be redeemable for digital prizes and exclusive NFTs
• As an enhancement to the Company’s proprietary collaborative filtering content recommendations, Cineverse will provide more accurate content recommendations and relevant content shelves as well as advanced search capabilities based on intrinsic characteristics of a film such as tone, theme, storyline, mood and hundreds of other dimensions intrinsic to a film
• Cinedigm’s tightly integrated content delivery platform, Matchpoint Dispatch – also part of the Matchpoint Platform – will enable Cineverse to easily launch with more than 15,000 feature films & television shows spanning all the Company’s channels with thousands of additional titles to follow. 

LONDON—A new report from Digital TV Research is predicting that global OTT revenue from TV episodic series and movies  will continue to grow rapidly, jumping from $135 billion in 2021 to $224 billion in 2027. About $21 billion will be added in 2022 alone.

Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, explained that “the U.S. will command 45% of global revenues by 2027. We forecast that U.S. revenues will climb by $45 billion between 2021 and 2027 to reach $106 billion.”

The study also is predicting that SVOD revenue will climb by $48 billion between 2021 and 2027 to total $136 billion. AVOD revenues will increase by $37 billion between 2021 and 2027 to reach $70 billion.

From the 138 countries covered, the top five will command 65% of global OTT revenues by 2027. OTT revenues will exceed $1 billion in 25 countries by 2027; up from 17 countries in 2021.

For more information on the "Global OTT TV and Video Forecasts" report, contact Simon Murray, simon@digitaltvresearch.com, tel: +44 20 8248 5051.

COS COB, Conn.—Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, Inc. has announced a deal to acquire Redbox Entertainment Inc. that would create a large AVOD player in the rapidly expanding connected TV ad space. 

A recent IAB study found that ad spending on connected TV platforms increased 57% from 2020 to 2021 and is expected to increase another 39% this year.

Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment expects that the combined company will exit 2022 with a run-rate exceeding $500 million of revenue and $100 million to $150 million of Adjusted EBITDA.

News of the deal comes as Redbox had faced financial difficulties. After going public last year in a SPAC merger with Seaport Global Acquisition, Redbox’s stock has plummeted and it has been forced to lay off 10% of its staff. 

Following news of the deal, shares of both companies fell on the morning of May 12. 

“Today marks a transformative moment for Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment and an inflection point for the ad-supported streaming industry,” said William J. Rouhana Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. “Our acquisition of Redbox will accelerate the scaling of our business as it combines complementary teams and services to create the streaming industry’s premier independent AVOD. Redbox has 40 million customers in its loyalty program and high-potential digital television assets including carriage of over 130 FAST digital channels on its Free Live TV platform, as well as a robust TVOD and PVOD platform. Together, we will build a fully developed AVOD and FAST streaming business: proven branded streaming services, formidable content and production capabilities, and a strong AVOD and FAST ad sales operation.”

The combination of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment and Redbox will create a leading independent, integrated direct-to-consumer media platform, with a massive content library, more than 38,000 kiosks nationwide, extensive digital capabilities in AVOD, TVOD, PVOD, and FAST, and access to millions of targeted customers, including nearly 40 million Redbox Perks members, the companies said. 

“We believe that Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment is the ideal partner for Redbox. By joining forces, we will accelerate Redbox’s transition from a physical to high growth digital media company and be the only entertainment provider truly focused on value for consumers,” said Galen Smith, chief executive officer of Redbox. “This all-stock transaction provides Redbox stockholders with the opportunity to participate in the significant near- and long-term upside potential of a diversified and growing company with greater scale and resources. With our footprint of more than 38,000 kiosks, diverse content libraries and combined streaming platforms, we will be well positioned to deliver consumers a wealth of high-quality entertainment options.”

The deal has been valued at about $375 million, mostly for the assumption of Redbox’s debt, or between $31 million and $36 million after the assumption of the debt, which is a huge decline from the SPAC deal that took Redbox public last fall. 

Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies, Redbox stockholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 0.087 of a share of class A common stock of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment per Redbox share. Following the close of the transaction, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment stockholders will own approximately 76.5% of the combined company, and Redbox stockholders will own approximately 23.5% of the combined company, on a fully diluted basis.

Redbox stockholders holding approximately 86% of the Redbox voting power have entered into a voting agreement to approve the transaction. Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment stockholders holding approximately 91% of the voting power of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment have delivered a written consent approving the transaction.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2022, subject to the receipt of required regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, the companies said. Upon closing, the combined entity will retain the name Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment and will continue to trade under the ticker symbol “CSSE” on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

A new report from Digital TV Research predicts that revenues for ad-supported video-on demand worldwide will reach $70 billion by 2027, more than double the $33 billion revenues logged in 2921. Of the 138 countries covered in the survey, 13 will generate more than $1 billion by 2027, compared to only five countries in 2021. 

The five top countries in order of predicted revenues include: U.S., China, U.K., Japan, and India. 

The report reflects recent trends among the world's largest streaming services that have announced plans to launch ad-supported tiers. Disney+, which has been focusing on developing its own ad technology, announced in March that it was going to introduce ads in an effort to squeeze out more revenues per subscriber and Netflix, in response to sagging subscription numbers, also announced its plans for an ad-supported tier last month. 

Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “U.S. AVOD will grow  by $19 billion to $31 billion by 2027—remaining the largest country by far. The US  has the world’s most sophisticated advertising industry by some distance, plus  AVOD choice is greater in the U.S. than anywhere else. The U.S. will account for 46%  of the global total by 2027, up from 39% in 2021.” 

Second-placed China slumped in 2020 due to its economic downturn and it will take  until 2024 for China to better its 2019 total, the report noted. In 2021, the government clamped down  on fan-based culture, which resulted in far fewer reality shows from the OTT  platforms—and less viewer demand. 

LOS GATOS, Calif.—After Netflix reported sub losses of around 200,000 in the first quarter of 2022 and its shares plunged to four year lows, the company’s executives told investors that they are considering introducing lower-cost ad supported plans. 

In Q1, 2022, Netflix reported a decline of 0.2 million in net paid additional subscribers, way below its guidance forecast of 2.5 million net adds. 

“The suspension of our service in Russia and winding-down of all Russian paid memberships resulted in a -0.7m impact on paid net adds; excluding this impact, paid net additions totaled +0.5m,” the company noted. 

The letter to shareholders also cited the difficulties growing the companies already very large sub base and increased competition. 

Those disappointing results pushed down share prices by 36% by 11:15 a.m. on Weds. April 20th. 

During the Q1 2022 earnings call Reed Hastings, co-founder, chairman, president and co-CEO raised the idea of ad-supported plans saying, “those who have followed Netflix know that I've been against the complexity of advertising and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription. But as much as I'm a fan of that, I'm a bigger fan of consumer choice. And allowing consumers who would like to have a lower price and are advertising-tolerant get what they want makes a lot of sense. So that's something we're looking at now. We're trying to figure [it] out over the next year or two. But think of us as quite open to offering even lower prices with advertising as a consumer choice.”

“I think it's pretty clear that it's working for Hulu,” Hastings added later in the call. “Disney is doing it. HBO did it. I don't think we have a lot of doubt that it works, that all those companies have figured it out. I'm sure we'll just get in and figure it out as opposed to test it and maybe do it or not do it. So I think we'll really get in. But again, it would be a plan layer, like it is at Hulu. So if you still want the ad-free option, you'll be able to have that as a consumer. And if you would rather pay a lower price and you're ad-tolerant, that's also -- we're going to cater to you also.”

The move would be a major shift for Netflix, which has always resisted advertising and a potential bit opportunity for advertisers who have been unable to reach a large segment of Netflix viewers. 

Citing Nielsen data for February 2022, Netflix noted that it had 6.4% share of all TV viewing. 

In Q1 2022 subscribers hit 221.64 million, down 200,000 from Q4 2021 but up 6.5% from a year earlier. 

In explaining the losses, the Netflix shareholder letter stated that “in addition to our 222m paying households, we estimate that Netflix is being shared with over 100m additional households....Account sharing as a percentage of our paying membership hasn’t changed much over the years, but…means it’s harder to grow membership in many markets.”

In addition, competition has significantly heated up “over the last three years, as traditional entertainment companies realized streaming is the future, many new streaming services have also launched. While our U.S. television viewing share, for example, has been steady…according to Nielsen, we want to grow that share faster," the shareholder letter explained. 

ZÜRICH, Switzerland—FIFA has launched a free ad supported streaming service FIFA+ that will offer more than 29,000 men’s matches and over 11,000 women’s matches in 2022 as well as originals, match stats, archival footage and more. 

At launch, FIFA+ will be available across all web and mobile devices, and with plans to launch on connected devices soon. 

It will be available in five language editions (English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish), with an additional six languages to follow in June of 2022, FIFA reported. 

The first slate of FIFA+ Originals will feature Ronaldinho, Dani Alves, Ronaldo Nazário, Romelu Lukaku, Lucy Bronze and Carli Lloyd, among others. 

“FIFA+ represents the next step in our vision to make football truly global and inclusive, and it underpins FIFA’s core mission of expanding and developing football globally,” said FIFA president Gianni Infantino. “This project represents a cultural shift in the way different types of football fans want to connect with and explore the global game and has been a fundamental part of my Vision 2020-2023. It will accelerate the democratization of football and we are delighted to share it with fans.” 

By the end of 2022, FIFA+ will be streaming the equivalent of 40,000 live games per year from 100 Member Associations across all six confederations, including 11,000 women’s matches, the association said. This will include live coverage from Europe’s topflight leagues to previously unserved competitions from around the world in men’s, women’s and youth football. 

Other content highlights include: 

• Ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, FIFA+ will be home to every FIFA World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup match ever recorded on camera, totaling more than 2,000 hours of archive content. For the first time ever, this entire archive will be available to fans. Fans will have the ability to watch full-match replays, highlights, goals and magical moments all in one place. The FIFA+ Archive will launch with more than 2,500 videos dating back to the 1950s, with many more to come throughout the year. 
• Match Center, News and Gaming: The Match Center will allow football fans to immerse themselves in rich football data across 400 men's competitions and 65 women's competitions. A daily feed of news from around the world of men’s and women’s football will also complement and offer additional updates. Throughout the year, fans will enjoy interactive games including votes, quizzes, fantasy games and predictors.  
• FIFA+ Originals: FIFA+ will also provide unrivaled content delivering global storytelling around the men’s and women’s game. It will feature full-length documentaries, docuseries, talk shows and shorts - localized into 11 languages, telling stories from local grassroots to national teams and footballing heroes past and present from more than 40 countries. 

The increasing transition towards Over the Top (OTT) content is radically changing how video is being sold, produced, and consumed. As a result, companies and organizations across industries are making streaming a priority, aiming to extend the reach of their existing content and/or create new programming to engage with existing and prospective audiences. 

In addition to engaging a target audience, the goal of OTT platforms is to monetize and identify earnings opportunities. Two of the most utilized OTT monetization services are Ad-based Video on Demand (AVOD) and Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD). 

OTT Monetization Models

• AVOD services like YouTube are an ad-based VOD that consumers can watch for free.
• SVOD services such as Netflix, HBO Max, and Amazon Prime Video derive revenue from subscription payments.

Of the two, which is best? The answer is dependent on a variety of factors, such as the type and quality of the content, the power of the brand behind the content, and the overall objective of what you are trying to accomplish.

Let's take a closer look at the differences of each model.

SVOD
SVOD drives revenue to publishers from subscription payments. The SVOD market is oversaturated now, with platforms like Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon and a variety of other options. 

According to Statista, SVOD revenue in the states has reached $25.3 billion. The number of SVOD subscriptions is supposed to jump from 354 million to 458 million in 2027, according to Digital TV Research. In fact, about 86% of TV households will subscribe to at least one SVOD platform by 2027 with the average SVOD household paying for just over four SVOD platforms by 2027.

According to Lightshed Partners, SVOD subscribers will nearly double from 650 million worldwide at the end of 2020 to 1.25 billion by the end of 2024 - 16% of the human population. 

The challenge that this model presents is creating exclusive content that viewers do not have the option to view anywhere else. It is also crucial to deliver new content on a regular basis, otherwise, the audience may lose interest and cancel their subscriptions.

AVOD
AVOD services are driven by views and engagement and can be lucrative depending on the ability of the publisher to insert ads as part of the viewing experience. This could be displayed prior to or threaded in the content. 

Because AVOD is free to consumers, the model can help attract and build a large audience, which is appealing to advertisers. There are currently 108.6 million AVOD viewers in the United States with Facebook Watch being the most used service in North America according to Statista. 

Like broadcast television, ads are threaded into the programming experience to offset production and hosting costs. This is where Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) comes into play. SSAI integrates video ads into the stream at run time, manipulating the video manifold, allowing for dynamically inserted ads on a per user level based on IP address, device and optimally based on content. Ad blockers are also eliminated, making it difficult to subvert the means to monetize the content experience.

Viewers can often be displeased with this model due to the frequency of ads. It is also possible for viewers to lose interest or get distracted in between and stop watching the content they selected. 

Another challenge unless your platform has a large viewership and is generating a lot of views, the revenue might not cover the costs of content creation and platform fees. Not having enough ad impressions to get advertisers to take notice of your inventory can also hurt. An effective way to monetize is having advertisers buy with no commission payouts and higher cost per thousand (CPM). A significant amount of impressions and campaigns need to run for several months for this to take place.

Emergence of the Hybrid Model
SVOD and AVOD have their advantages and disadvantages. What if you can leverage the best attributes of both, such as a hybrid model?

A user can receive access to a free content library of a platform that works like AVOD. YouTube Premium is a perfect example, and as you know, it is free. However, YouTube Premium charges a fee and there are special features that come with it, such as no ads, playing videos when a user’s device is locked, and users can download videos to their device for offline viewing. 

Another example of a hybrid model is charging a fee for a basic subscription and then also charging a plan that is a little more expensive. Take Hulu for example. Hulu charges a subscription, and viewers are forced to watch ads unless you pay a little more and then viewers can watch content without ads. Hulu also has plans that include live TV, Disney + and ESPN+. Each of these plans cost more but the user can have access to more content.

The benefit of this model is you can try it before fully committing and paying for a subscription.

Selecting the Right Model 
Among the models and approaches, the first step for a publisher to consider is the type of content they have and/or want to create. Determining the frequency of publishing as well as budget to create content will play a role in choosing the best model—SVOD, AVOD, or hybrid. 

The maxim—content is king—is still undisputed. High-quality content will drive engagement to the OTT platform. User experience is also key. Keeping it simple and easy for users to navigate through content to find what they are looking for and view across a multitude of devices is paramount. 

Furthermore, security is critical. With the constant news in the headlines about security breaches occurring due to malware and ransomware attacks, you want to ensure your content and customers are secure.

Among the myriad features to consider when deciding on an OTT platform, making it imperative to find one that is comprehensive, reliable, and secure. Once a publisher has settled on a platform, they can then choose the best model that suits their objectives.

Which OTT Model is for You?
SVOD is a great way to bring in revenue because it is driven on subscriptions. For users to view the content, they must pay a fee. AVOD is also a good option for those looking to run ads on their platform in exchange for free content. The hybrid model is a mix between SVOD and AVOD, but there are opportunities to upsell by offering features or content at a higher price.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—A new report from Fox Entertainment’s free streaming service Tubi is predicting that subscription fatigue will boost audiences for ad-supported VOD (AVOD) services past the size of SVOD services in 2022. 

“The Stream: 2022 Audience Insights for Brands” report also provided some new metrics for Tubi’s performance. 

The report revealed that Tubi had 3.6 billion hours streamed in 2021, a 40% YoY increase in total viewing time (TVT) across its largest-in-streaming library of more than 40,000 titles. Further, Tubi’s incremental audience continues to complement other potential video ad investments – with 71% of Tubi streamers unreachable on cable, 56% unreachable on linear TV, and 27% unreachable on any other major free streaming platform.

“Our findings in `The Stream’ bring AVOD to the forefront of streaming investment planning for brands in 2022, as well as a necessary complement to existing linear TV strategy,” said Natalie Bastian, senior vice president, marketing, Tubi. “At Tubi, we’ve focused on connecting with new communities — both by accessing FOX’s desirable audience as well as partnering with next generation platforms to reach audiences not found on linear television — and it’s paid off with rapid growth among key audience segments.”

The report predicts that free streaming’s audience will grow larger than paid streaming by mid-2022, noting that AVOD audiences grew twice as fast (+16%) as SVOD (+8%) in 2021. 

In 2022, The Stream projects that the current gap of about 5% in market penetration will close, with the number of AVOD users surpassing SVOD.  

The report also found that free streaming viewership is expanding rapidly among educated and higher-income earners and becoming more reflective of national audience averages. AVOD adoption was led by the young (who still over-index vs. general population), but mature, educated and affluent audiences are growing rapidly, the researchers said. 

Tubi itself has seen double-digit growth in all audience segments over the past year — with the most growth among college educated and affluent ($100k+ HHI) demos, placing Tubi on par with U.S. national averages, the report said. 

With an average viewer 16+ years younger than non-streamers, Tubi’s audience has become nationally representative across geographic, economic and educational segments, and includes a large multicultural audience, comprising 40% of its user base, the report said. 

It also reported that over a quarter (27%) of Tubi streamers can’t be reached on any other major AVOD service: 78% aren’t on Peacock, and 62% aren’t on Hulu; however, 71% subscribe to Netflix, currently unreachable by ads.

“The Stream” report also projects that half of all internet users will use free streaming services by 2024, and by 2026, ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) revenues will triple 2021 levels, reaching $31.5 billion.

Light ad loads are also helping, the report noted. Tubi has some of the lightest ad load in the AVOD space: only 4-6 minutes per hour of viewing, giving advertisers increased brand recognition and recall in an environment where viewers are most receptive. This compares to traditional TV, with an ad load of 13-17 minutes every hour. Tubi streamers are 10% more likely than the general population to state “I like to look at advertising.”

For the report, Tubi commissioned survey research with MarketCast. It conducted an online survey of 6,003 adult streamers over 18 years of age in Q4 2021. 

The full report is available here. 

NEW YORK—Fox News Media’s new AVOD streaming service Fox Weather will start simulcasting its live weekend programming on the Fox Business Network (FBN) on December 4. 

The move to simulcast the Fox Weather streaming service marks the first time that the AVOD service has been made available to a linear network audience since the platform launched in October 2021, Fox Weather president Sharri Berg announced. 

Every Saturday and Sunday beginning December 4, FBN viewers will be able to watch America’s Weather Weekend live from 6-8 AM/ET from Fox Weather’s Studio W in the heart of Manhattan.

The program will emphasize the intersection of weather and business, spotlighting the potential financial impact of major and emerging weather systems, Fox said. 

Following the two-hour simulcast on FBN, America’s Weather Weekend will continue live on Fox Weather from 8 AM to 12 PM/ET every weekend.

Fox noted that the Fox Weather app had more than 1 million downloads in its first week and that it has continued to add additional distribution partners, including Tubi which launched on November 15th, the Fox Nation CTV app, integration on iPads, as well as forthcoming integration on Apple Watches.

Fox Weather is a free platform available at foxweather.com and through the Fox Weather app for iOS and Android, as well as internet-connected TVs via Fox, the Fox News app, and Tubi.

NEW YORK & STOCKHOLM—ViacomCBS Networks International and the Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group) have announced a partnership for the launch of new Pluto TV service across Sweden, Denmark and Norway in 2022. 

The service will combine ViacomCBS' free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service with the biggest pan-Nordic AVOD platform Viafree. NENT Group will serve as the platform's leading advertising sales partner.

The Pluto TV FAST/AVOD platform will feature curated channels and on-demand programming featuring international and local content. Content will include Viafree local favorites like 'Paradise,' 'Luxury Trap' and 'Familien fra Bryggen', as well as global content from ViacomCBS' library, including 'The Hills,' 'Awkward,' 'MTV Unplugged' and 'Catfish.' There will also be content from multiple partners packaged in thematic channels like Pluto TV Movie, Pluto TV Crime, Pluto TV History, and Pluto TV Comedy, among others.

"Continuing to expand Pluto TV as the world-leading free ad-supported streaming TV service is a critical element of our streaming strategy, and we are delighted to partner with NENT Group to create this new and expanded version of Pluto TV,” said Raffaele Annecchino, president and CEO of VCNI. “The combination of our global content pipeline and Pluto TV's best-in-class tech global platform, with NENT Group's ad sales scale and powerful local Viafree content, will position Pluto TV as the leading player in the growing FAST/AVOD space. Overall, this transformational partnership will boost Pluto TV's growth internationally, and we expect to replicate this strategic model across key international markets."

Following the launch of Pluto TV, Viafree will be phased out as a stand-alone platform.

Pluto TV is available in 26 markets globally, including the US, Latin America, and Europe.

NEW YORK—Fox Weather has inked an agreement with WeatherSTEM, a provider of live weather data and high-resolution video from collegiate and professional sports stadiums, to provide exclusive newsgathering data to Fox Weather. 

“In an effort to create the most robust network of cameras across the country Fox Weather has partnered with the WeatherSTEM network to provide a live look into local weather conditions across the country, allowing unmatched access to real-time weather conditions and video,” said Sharri Berg, president of Fox Weather. 

Utilizing WeatherSTEM’s network of sensors, Fox Weather meteorologists will have the exclusive ability to access live information from a footprint of nearly 600 WeatherSTEM stations including collegiate and NFL stadiums across the country. 

Key stadium locations include Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Raymond James Stadium, Pittsburgh Steelers Heinz Field, University of Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium, Louisiana State University’s Tiger Stadium and Texas A&M’s Kyle Field, among others. 

The high-definition camera network will also enable instantaneous access to real-time weather conditions, spanning lightning, wind speed and temperature, for a hyper-local approach to weather coverage. Combined with Fox Weather’s innovative data systems, the partnership will further enhance the platform’s weather display technology, giving viewers a complete picture of the weather story, the company said. 

Fox Weather, a 24/7 ad-supported streaming service operated by Fox News Media, will launch on October 25th.

It is a free platform that will be available at foxweather.com and through the Fox Weather app for iOS and Android, as well as internet-connected TVs via Fox NOW, the Fox News app, and Tubi.

NEW YORK—With consumer usage of ad-supported streaming platforms seeing rapid growth the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) has released a new report with 23 case studies documenting the power of video streaming to improve ad campaigns and providing some practical advice to marketers on how they can best capitalize on the medium. 

"With nearly all Americans now streaming, marketers across a variety of categories, investment levels and life stages are experiencing firsthand unprecedented opportunities for brand growth," said Danielle DeLauro, executive vice president of the VAB, whose members include many of the major programmers and national TV networks. "Our collection of over 20 case studies represents a cross-section of premium publishers, distributors and measurement providers, and answers marketers' most frequently asked questions—such as how to use streaming to boost sales and extend reach."

Spanning across an assortment of product categories, the featured case studies were supplied by AMC Networks, Ampersand, DeepIntent, Effectv, Hulu, Innovid, iSpot.tv, NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS' PlutoTV, Simulmedia, Spectrum Reach, TVSquared, VideoAmp and Xperi.

In one case study, TiVo extended campaign reach through data-driven Connected TV (CTV) advertising targeting sport enthusiasts, which drove a 25% increase in device sales.

In another, demonstrating how marketers can use streaming to extend the reach of their video campaign beyond linear TV, a luxury auto advertiser's streaming campaign on Tubi delivered on cross-channel incremental reach, with 89% of Tubi's audience being incremental to the linear buy, and only 3% of media volume overlapping between Tubi and linear campaigns.

In another, focusing on how marketers drive in-store traffic with streaming, a tax services provider drove tax filing conversion rates for both their online services and retail locations. Among the results were a 10% lift in tax filing conversion rate and 66% more efficient cost per conversation.

Additional other case studies and data points are available here in the full report. 

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.”

 ROCHELLE, N.Y.—Despite the proliferation of subscription streaming services in the streaming market, ad-supported streaming options continue to gain momentum, according to Horowitz Research’s "State of Viewing and Streaming 2021" report. 

The findings call into question the perception that linear TV may have less of a role to play in the streaming world, which was initially dominated by SVOD services like Netflix that offered on demand content with no ads. 

According to Horowitz, almost half (46%) of TV content viewers in the U.S. report used an ad-supported streaming service (AVOD) at least monthly, and a full 28% using a free ad-supported TV (FAST) service with ad supported linear channels in addition to their
on-demand offerings.

In addition, consumers are using a wide range of ad-supported services with linear content. Pluto TV, Tubi, The Roku Channel app, and IMDb TV are the services consumers report using most often.

Ad-supported streaming services do not yet command the share of viewing enjoyed by subscription-based streaming services, a market dominated by original aggregators like Netflix, and a wide range of direct-to-consumer alternatives like Disney+, Peacock, and Discovery+, Horowitz reported. 

However, the growth of these free ad supported TV services signals an important turning point for media companies struggling to adjust their business models to the streaming environment. Despite the explosive growth of streaming, linear (broadcast and cable) ad sales are still considered by most media companies to be their cash cow. This is due to the ongoing struggle to drive the same levels of revenue in the streaming environment, the report explained. 

The Horowitz study also found that streaming is poised to eclipse traditional platforms in terms of share of viewing of long-form TV content. 

Among consumers overall, the pie is split rather evenly: 35% of self-reported time spent is now spent on linear content delivered via a traditional service (cable, satellite, or over-the-air through an antenna), while 37% is spent on streamed content (the rest is spent on cable or satellite-delivered VOD, content that is DVR’d, or DVDs).

Among younger consumers, the picture is very different: a full 50% of time spent among 18-34 year olds is on streamed content, while only 18% of their time is spent with traditional, linear content. 

As a result, the need to monetize TV content in the streaming environment as robustly as it had been monetized in the traditional environment is a matter of survival for media companies big and small in this new ecosystem, Horowitz explained. 

The good news is that consumers are very open to advertising in the streaming space—perhaps even more so than they were in the traditional, linear space, Horowitz found. 

While about half of streamers go out of their way to avoid advertising when watching TV, there is more tolerance when watching content that is available for free (or at low cost). Six in ten (58%) streamers feel that ads are a fair “price” for being able to watch TV content for free (i.e., telling us they do not mind seeing ads if they are paying very little or watching for free). Moreover, almost 4 in 10 consumers are starting to notice- and appreciate—the more customized, personalized advertising experience they are getting through streaming.

“Consumers’ love for entertainment content—and their desire to get as much of that content as they can for as little as they can— hasn’t changed. The fundamentals of the industry haven’t changed,” notes Adriana Waterston, SVP of Insights and Strategy for Horowitz.

“What has changed are the expectations consumers have about how, where, and when they can consume the content they love, and the technology that exists to deliver those experiences. When delivered in the screen-agnostic, watch-anywhere, and highly personalized viewing experience of the streaming environment, we are seeing some consumers not just tolerating, but welcoming advertising, particularly when it is customized to their interests,” she added. 

“State of Viewing & Streaming 2021” provides analysis of U.S. TV content viewers (people who watch 1+ hours TV/day), as well as key demographic and subscription segments. The survey was conducted online in May 2021 among 2,000 TV content viewers. 

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C.—America’s love affair with over-the-top streaming video is evolving as viewers increasingly are happy to watch ad-supported streaming channels, according to the results of a new nationwide survey released this week.

Global consumer research platform Piplsay polled nearly 28,000 people around the U.S. about their attitudes and habits when it comes to ad-supported video streaming services. Six in 10 told the researchers that they switched from ad-free to ad-supported streaming channels in the past year. Twenty-eight percent of those respondents have cut off ad-free channels completely, the researcher said.

Overall, 63% of Americans subscribe to a paid or free ad-supported streaming video service, the survey revealed. Nearly half (49%) of Americans said they were extremely satisfied with the content offered by ad-supported streaming services.

Eighty-two percent of respondents said they watch streaming video content. This includes both those who said they subscribe and those who watch streaming video without a subscription.

The survey revealed that the three most popular free ad-supported streaming services among respondents were Peacock (23%), The Roku Channel (17%) and Pluto (12%).

The top three paid ad-supported channels among respondents were Hulu (34%), HBO Max (26%) and Discovery+ (11%).

However, the survey also revealed strong interest in returning to ad-free streaming services. Fifty-four percent said they plan to switch to or subscribe back to ad-free services—26% of those in the next two to three months, the survey revealed.

The nationwide survey was conducted July 2-3. A total of 27,800 people, 18 years of age and older, responded to the online survey.

For more information visit the researcher’s website.

BOSTON—While the popularity of ad-free SVOD services like Netflix and Disney Plus has caused worries that marketers will have a harder time reaching consumers, new research from Hub suggests that viewers are relatively tolerant of ads and that their attitudes toward ad-supported services has a lot to do with cost and how the ads are delivered. 

The first wave of Hub’s “TV Advertising: Fact vs. Fiction” study found that consumers view both ad-free and ad-supported content and that it is not an either or choice for them. 

The survey found that nearly all TV consumers (95%) watch from at least one ad-supported source and a large majority (79%) also report that they watch at least one ad-free TV source. 

Nearly one in five consumers (17%) reported that they can’t tolerate them and won’t sign up for a service with ads while another group (26%) says the content is more important than ads. 

But 57% fall between these two statements agreeing with the statement that “I can tolerate a certain number of ads, but if there are too many I’ll go elsewhere.”

Consumers are also more willing to view ads when the cost of the services is added to the mix. 

Given the choice between a lower-cost ad-supported service and a higher-cost ad-free service—assuming the same content—most would be willing to watch ads, with 58% saying they’d prefer an ad-supported service that costs $4-$5 less per month than an ad-free service. About 42% said they would pay more to avoid ads.

Interestingly, the proportion who would choose a less expensive, ad-supported service over an ad-free service actually includes one-third of those who initially said that, on principle, they’d “never consider” a TV service with ads.

“What’s clear from these findings is that what matters to consumers is not whether ads are included in the content they watch, but how ads are delivered,” said Mark Loughney, Hub senior consultant and co-author of the study. “Even consumers who say they’re categorically opposed to ads will use an ad-supported platform if the price and ad delivery are right.”

The data comes from the first wave of Hub’s “TV Advertising: Fact Vs. Fiction” study, conducted among 3,0001 US consumers aged 14-74, who watch at least 1 hour of TV per week. The data were collected in June 2021. 

BURBANK, Calif.—HBO Max went live with its ad-supported tier today, June 2, offering consumers the choice between a $9.99 tier with limited ads and an ad-free subscription for $14.99. 

The move is important both for HBO Max, which wants to accelerate its subscriber counts, and for the ad industry, which has been worrying about reaching consumers in a landscape where pay TV subscriptions are declining and some of the dominant SVOD services like Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon and HBO Max did not offer ads. 

“Advertising is a time-tested way to reduce the cost of great entertainment and reach a wider audience,” said the executive VP and general manager of HBO Max, Andy Forssell. “We’ve worked hard to create an elegant, tasteful ad experience that is respectful of great storytelling for those users who choose it, and which we’re confident will deliver for our advertising partners as well.”

HBO Max reports that more than 35 brands across all major categories are slated to go live on HBO Max this June, “including two Brand Block partners in auto and insurance, with 72 creatives currently housed for campaigns.”

Both HBO Max subscription tiers offer access to the streaming platform’s lineup of new original programming, as well its deep catalog of content from such entertainment brands as HBO, Warner Bros., DC, Turner Classic Movies and Cartoon Network.  

One big difference is that the ad-supported tier will not include the ability to download content for offline viewing, and the streaming video quality will be capped at 1080p. 

In addition, Warner Bros. same-day premiere films debuting in theaters and on HBO Max throughout 2021 are not included in the HBO Max ad-supported tier. The films will become available on both tier options when the films debut via the HBO service in the months following their theatrical releases as part of HBO’s output deal with Warner Bros. 

The ad load on the new tier is capped at four minutes per hour. HBO Max has said it is committed to offering “the lowest commercial ad load in the streaming industry.”

Ads will also not play during HBO programming. 

“Today we launch an innovative, best in class streaming ad experience,” said JP Colaco, head of advertising sales, WarnerMedia. “Together with our valued partners we will continue to explore the art of what’s possible in video advertising across all platforms.”    

BURBANK, Calif.—HBO Max is expanding its offerings to consumers, announcing it will launch an ad-supported (AVOD) version of the streaming service in the first week of June. The AVOD version of HBO Max will cost $9.99/month, $5 cheaper than the ad-free version of HBO Max.

Simply referred to as HBO Max with Ads by WarnerMedia in its official announcement, the AVOD version will offer nearly all of HBO Max’s content catalog, with the lone exception being the 2021 Warner Bros. movies that are premiering on the premium version of HBO Max the same day they debut in theaters.

User experience will also be identical for both the ad and premium versions, per WarnerMedia, including elements like personalization and customization, parental controls and kid experiences.

WarnerMedia shared the type of ad experiences that will be available on HBO Max with Ads. Available now is “brand block,” where brands own a block of content but that consumers experience with “limited commercial” interruptions. Other ad experiences that are expected to launch in the near future include “pause ads,” which allow for consumer engagement when they take a break from content, and “branded discovery,” with branding opportunities for when users are searching content.

AVOD services have been growing in popularity thanks in part to their discounted prices from ad-free streaming services. HBO Max now joins Peacock and Paramount+ with AVOD and ad-free subscription plans among some of the larger streaming services.

“HBO Max with Ads will bring our beloved entertainment brands and franchises to even more consumers at this new, lower price point-while, for the first time, elegantly connecting brands to the premium, iconic IP that defines this service,” said Tony Goncalves, executive vice president and chief revenue officer for WarnerMedia.

For more information, visit www.hbomax.com.  

NEW YORK—A rising tide lifts all boats, as the expression goes, and the rise of streaming has not only been a boon for the likes of Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ and more, but also for ad-supported services (AVOD). AVODs have grown in popularity among consumers, according to a recent study by Verizon Media and Publicis.

In its “Capitalizing on the CTV Opportunity” report, Verizon and Publicis recognize that AVOD platforms are poised for growth amid all the subscriptions and option fatigue. The report notes that consumers have on average five streaming services, with 45% saying they are using too many services for content and 48% worrying about how much they’re spending for the services.

As a result, AVOD has gained in popularity among consumers, carving a niche in the streaming market with either cheaper versions of SVODs that still offer much of the same premium content or free versions that provide users with low-financial risk to use.

Seven out of 10 respondents said paid AVOD services were worth the prices, describing them as “affordable,” “a good value” and a “fair price.” Three in five also said that they would prefer if more streaming services offered cheaper, ad-supported subscription tiers.

Just under half (47%) of respondents said they are more interested in AVOD services than they were just a few years ago and would be willing to try it—83% said they’d try an AVOD version of their favorite service, while 82% would consider an AVOD version to save money.

That doesn’t mean that respondents would just accept whatever ads came their way. About a quarter (23%) of AVOD subscribers switched to a paid, ad-free version because of a bad ad experience. As for what can make a bad ad experience, respondents said overly long commercial breaks (60%), too many commercial breaks (60%) and repetitive ads (58%).

More information on Verizon Media and Publicis’ report is available online. 

NEW YORK—The world is slowly starting to open up again thanks to the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, but even in a post-pandemic world, most consumers believe they will maintain, if not increase, their TV viewing habits across all platforms—live TV, SVOD and AVOD streaming.

This data comes from Tremor Video and Unruly, who surveyed 893 U.S. consumers in March. 

When asked what they expect their TV viewing habits to be over the next six months, 86% said they plan to watch live TV at the same or increase rates. Responses to the same question were 88% for streaming via SVOD platforms and 81% for streaming on free AVOD platforms.

This is in line with habits that people have gained in the last year. Tremor Video reports that since March 2020, TV viewing has spiked, with 61% of consumers saying they have watched more TV than before the outbreak of the pandemic.

When looking at it by demographics, the groups that are expected to have the most increased engagement with both paid and free TV streaming are younger demos (18-44) and higher income ($100,000 or more annually).

Connected TV (CTV) is expected to be a benefactor of this increased rate of viewing.

“[O]ur study suggests that consumers plan to increase their time with CTV content, reinforcing just how essential the medium will continue to be for advertisers as they look to fine-tune their 2021 media strategies,” said Terence Scroope, vice president of Media Insights and Analytics at Tremor Video.

Per another report from Tremor Video and Unruly, “CTV Advertiser Insights Report,” it showed that 72% of U.S. digital advertising professionals believe that CTV reaches target audiences more effectively than linear TV. As a result, 85% are making CTV a key part of their video strategy.

For more information, download the full report online.