Research from leading analyst Nielsen has confirmed that beneath the overall uptick in streaming services over the course of the first half of 2020, advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) has steadily gained traction.
In its Beyond SVOD report Nielsen noted the liberal swapping of terms such as AVOD, FAST (free ad-supported TV) and CTV (connected TV in general). It noted that fundamentally ad-supported streaming varieties offer consumers yet another video option amid a vastly fragmenting sea of choice. Nielsen suggested that in addition to appealing to consumers who feel maxed with subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services, ad-supported options may become more popular among cash-strapped consumers affected by rising unemployment brought on by Covid-19.
The study found that streaming consumption across all video options was up more than 74% compared with last year, and came to the conclusion that streaming was now the present and future of content creation. It calculated that currently Americans in streaming-capable homes spend a quarter of their time with the TV glass streaming video content. Furthermore, it added that the growth and stickiness among adults 55 and older suggests that streaming is that much closer to ubiquity across consumer groups.
Not surprisingly, in terms of video streaming distribution, the SVOD giants of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and YouTube maintained the lion’s share of the market, with Disney+ already grabbing 4% after just coming to market in November 2019.
The “others”, including the AVOD players, accounted for nearly a quarter of total streaming distribution. And Nielsen emphasised that that in the streaming market, consumers had a limit to how many subscription services they’re willing to pay for, and the growth in time spent with ad-supported video streaming content suggests that newer entrants should have a clear view into current viewing trends before considering a business model that might not be in line with consumer needs and desires.
Nielsen said that undoubtedly the Covid-19 pandemic had upended traditional routines, forcing people to seek out new and engaging ways to pass the time with streaming coming to the rescue. This shift, it said, may have altered media consumption permanently, particularly for segments of the population that weren’t streaming before such as the over 55s. Nielsen calculated that during the second-quarter of 2020, Americans watched more than 142 billion minutes of streaming video and while the aggregate growth is notable, the year-over-year growth in minutes watched outside of content from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Disney+ and YouTube was more than 57%, accounting for more than 12 billion minutes.
Concluding, the Beyond SVOD report suggested that as video streaming continued to secure its foothold with American viewers, ad-supported video couldn’t be better positioned to capitalise.