The world is steadily embracing free, ad-supported video streaming, which will see massive growth in overall revenues during the next five years.
According to Digital TV Research, global AVOD revenues will more than double between 2018 and 2024 to reach $56 billion.
The Asia Pacific region has been a driver for AVOD growth. AVOD revenues for the region totaled $10.73 billion in 2018, accounting for 49% of the global total. Asia Pacific AVOD revenues are projected to reach $25.14 billion by 2024, but Asia Pacific’s share will fall to 45%.
North American AVOD revenue totaled $6.1 billion last year and will grow to $7.7 billion this year. By 2024, North American AVOD revenues will reach $20.3 billion.
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“China is the largest AVOD country – commanding 36% of the 2018 global total, with $7.78 billion. Similar to much of Asia, most OTT viewing in China is on mobile phones to AVOD-supported platforms. China will still generate 29% of the global total by 2024 with $16.60 billion,” said Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research. “However, the US will become the AVOD leader by 2023. Several large platform launches are expected in the near future in the U.S. The U.S. will more than triple its AVOD total between 2018 and 2024 to $19.23 billion – or 34% of the global total.”
The U.S. has seen momentum in the AVOD space. Competitors including Roku Channel, Xumo, Pluto TV and Tubi have all experienced fairly rapid active user growth. Amazon has begun to accelerate its AVOD strategy with international expansion for IMDb TV and NBCUniversal is planning to launch a new ad-supported streaming service next year.