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

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

The report finds:

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

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

BRISTOL, UK—Consumption of long-form YouTube content is rising rapidly in the U.S., accounting for 73% of all viewing time on the platform by the end of October 2024, according to new research by Digital i, a provider of cross-platform streaming data and analysis.

Findings showed that average viewing time spent by U.S. YouTube users on videos of 30 minutes in length or more rose by 8 percentage points last year, from 65% in October 2023 to 73% in October 2024, illustrating how users are spending more of their viewing time on longer content.

The trend is more pronounced among U.S. young adults aged 18-24-years-old that watched YouTube on mobile devices, with an increase of 21 percentage points in the amount of time spent viewing content of 30 minutes or more during the same period. In October 2023, 58% of content viewed by this demographic on mobile devices was long-form content, rising to 79% by October 2024.

Digital i research also indicated that 18-24-year-old U.S. YouTube users spent an average of 2.7 hours per day on the platform between July and October 2024, watching an average 25 videos per day.

This U.S. demographic spent the highest average time on the platform last year, with Digital i data also showing a decrease in YouTube viewing time corresponding to increasing age of the users.

NEW ROCHELLE, NY—An increasing number of budget-conscious consumers say they have cut back on subscription-based streaming services in favor of FAST channels, according to a new report from Horowitz Research. 

Tubi, Pluto TV, Freevee, YouTube, and Roku were the top-used FAST networks by consumers surveyed in the study. Free ad-supported streaming TV is now being viewed by 66% of viewers in a typical month—data that was reported in Horowitz Research’s latest annual report, State of Media, Entertainment, and Tech: Viewing Behaviors 2024. 

The new report, which tracks the evolution of the pay and free TV, streaming, internet, and mobile environment, reveals the impact of the emergence of FAST services on the TV ecosystem. On one hand, more than half (53%) of FAST users say they have cut down on their paid streaming services now that they have adopted FAST. On the other hand, 43% of FAST users say they have subscribed to a pay service to continue watching a show they started watching on a FAST channel. 

These data underscore the important opportunity to leverage FAST strategically, with smart windowing and content promotional strategies, the researcher said, adding that its study finds that the lean-back experience of channel surfing was sorely missed by consumers who cut the cord and relied on on-demand streaming options. Over seven in 10 (73%) FAST users agree that TV is more enjoyable now that they can turn on these free services and watch whatever is on. Specifically, among cord-cutters who no longer have a cable or satellite subscription, nearly six in 10 (58%) say free services are like having cable TV again.

“As the FAST space matures, it does feel like a correction of many of the issues that on-demand streaming created for consumers and the industry,” notes Adriana Waterston, EVP and Insights & Strategy Lead for Horowitz Research, a division of M/A/R/C Research. “On the consumer side, FAST is helping to mitigate the challenges of TV viewing in the on-demand space, in which consumers had to work pretty hard to find content to watch every time they sat down in front of the TV—not the most relaxing viewing experience. It is also creating opportunities to generate ad revenue and revenue from syndication, which will help put the business model back into balance.”

The full State of Media, Entertainment & Tech: Viewing Behaviors 2024 study explores viewing behaviors in the complex media landscape. The report examines share of viewing per platform, the devices they’re watching on, the kind of content they’re consuming, and which services they feel do the best job at delivering the content they seek. This year, the study does a deep dive on consumer relationships with FAST services. The survey was conducted in March - April 2024 among 2,008 TV content viewers 18+. Data have been weighted to ensure results are representative of the overall TV universe, Horowitz said.

BARCELONA, Spain—Streaming providers worldwide are increasing their infrastructure buildout to reduce latency and hiccups for consumers and the results are beginning to show, according to NPAW, a provider of streaming video intelligence services.

The first six months of 2024 saw a large global increase in quality of experience, with a 54% decrease in buffer ratio for Video-on-Demand (VOD) services, compared to the same period last year, according to the company’s 2024 1st half Video Streaming Industry Report. This KPI illustrates a worldwide shift in the quality of streaming video services. It’s also an indication of the global commitment of OTTs, Telcos and Broadcasters to providing better streaming quality, NPAW said.

Linear TV buffer ratio also improved remarkably in H1 2024, with a global decrease of 34% vs H1 2023 and 24% vs H2 2023. The Asia region alone experienced a 35% decrease in buffer ratio.

“Telcos, broadcasters and OTTs are investing heavily, thus improving the overall quality of the streaming video landscape. With new players entering the market regularly, it’s becoming much more competitive. We are seeing the world rapidly shift away from traditional TV and towards streaming providers.” said Ferran G. Vilaró, NPAW CEO & Co-Founder.

Thereport explores the current state of the video streaming industry both globally and regionally, comparing engagement and quality data from the first half of 2024 with the same period in 2023. The analyzed data were collected from the NPAW Suite for January to June 2024 and contrasted with data from January to June 2023. Advertising data were also gathered from January to June 2024.

To access this report please download here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DUBLIN – A recent report from Research and Markets, which is based out of Dublin, covered the broadcast switchers market and its expected growth from 2014-2020. The report revealed that systems that were compatible with HD made up about 75 percent of the market, and according to Research and Markets, that number is not expected to shrink over the next five years.

The increasing demand for HD broadcast for things like sporting events and music programs has led to a global increase of HD satellite broadcast subscribers. This has resulted in the creation of more HD channels. As of 2013, there were 4,500 HD channels available. By 2019 that number is expected to exceed 7,500 at a compound annual growth rate of nine percent.

Inversely, the demand for SD is expected to decline over the same period. The markets for 3D and 4K, however, are expected to go up and help grow the broadcast switchers market.

The global broadcast switchers market was valued at $1.28 billion in 2013 and is expected to grow 6.7 percent from 2014-2020. However, the lack of standardization in content distribution and high cost of broadcasting equipment may inhibit the growth of the market, according to the report.

To read the full report, click here.