MediaRadar measured OTT advertising across standalone streaming platforms and TV Anywhere apps to get a picture of OTT ad spend in 2021.
The company’s sample—which includes Hulu, Peacock, HBO Max, Discovery+ and Paramount+ —showed total ad spend in OTT reached nearly $1.3 billion in 2021. During the fourth quarter, those five services accounted for $438 million in ad spend, or 65% of the total.
Even though the figure is growing, OTT still represents only 3% of total digital spend per month.
“Advertisers are increasingly enhancing their ad buys with OTT,” said Todd Krizelman, CEO and co-founder at MediaRadar, in a statement. “The rise in viewership coupled with limited advertising per show is a great place for brands to get noticed and not be lost among many ad messages.”
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In 2021, 5,530 total advertisers ran ads across these five platforms, according to MediaRadar, which estimated that those marketers placed almost 500,000 ads in the second half of 2021.
The company also broke down different advertising categories and found that media advertising is the largest ad segment within OTT on the top five providers, accounting for 19% to 33% of total ads running on any given channel. Retail advertising accounts for 22% of ad spend on Discovery+ – nearly double its competitors—while financial and insurance brands represent 19% of HBO Max’s advertising volume, around 2-3x more than most other OTT channels.
Pharma advertisers are making their biggest OTT push on Paramount+ and Hulu, according to MediaRadar, and Discovery+ sells 5x more food advertising than other OTT channels. In the meantime, house ads, which refer to the inventory used to promote programming within the same parent company, represent 16% of total ad spots run.
“House advertising is highest immediately after a new channel launches, but has been declining over time with OTT channels getting better at selling their inventory,” the company wrote.