Tubi sees a not-too-distant horizon where free, ad-supported streaming service users outnumber the total streaming video subscribers.
The free, ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox just released its annual audience insights study and highlighted that AVOD audiences grew 16% in 2021 compared to SVOD audiences growing 8%. This year, the company expects that growth trajectory will close the approximate 5% gap in market penetration between AVOD and SVOD in 2022.
“This is attributable to a variety of factors, including subscription fatigue, ubiquitous hardware, cord cutting and increased broadband access. While total view time (TVT) is still led by SVOD, the opportunity for AVOD to expand TVT has never been greater,” the company wrote.
The free streaming market includes major players like Hulu, Tubi, Pluto TV, the Roku Channel, Peacock, Xumo, LG Channels, Samsung TV Plus and more. Tubi’s study suggests that these services will maintain audience overlap with SVOD but increase the loyal audiences who seek them out instead of competing AVOD/FAST services.
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Tubi said that 27% of its users can’t be reached on any other major AVOD service including 78% who aren’t on Peacock and 62% who aren’t on Hulu. Tubi reported 3.6 billion hours streamed in 2021, up 40% year over year in total viewing time. The service said that 71% of its streamers are unreachable on cable and 56% unreachable on linear TV.
“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.”