CTV advertising: Now’s the time to invest
The media landscape has changed drastically in recent years, one of the most seismic shifts being the explosive growth of CTV – a market continuing to boom, with Strategy Analytics forecasting that by 2026, 51% of households globally will own a Smart TV.[1]
Pandemic Viewing
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted the global acceleration of CTV’s growth, as an increasing number of viewers began cord-cutting in favour of OTT video content. This shift in consumer preference has boosted revenue growth of the global streaming devices market considerably.
The key players in this market (in terms of MAU) are[2]:
- Smart TV (119 million viewers)
- Roku (93.4 million)
- PlayStation & Xbox (72.6 million)
- Amazon Firestick (69.7 million)
- Chromecast (33.7 million)
Hybrid is the Future
Even with this increased migration to OTT, linear viewing still remains a strong contender in the media market. In fact, many audiences are now hybrid viewers. According to research carried out by Magnite, as CTV’s consumption rate rose by 55% across the EU5 markets between January 2020 and May 2021, so too did traditional TV viewing (by 17%).[3]
The Rise of AVOD & FAST
This nascent audience overlap is also reflected in the large-scale adoption of AVOD and FAST services.
In search of greater flexibility and quality programming, but also fatigued by the plethora of subscription-based streaming services available and the rising cost of living, the relative merits of AVOD and FAST have become more and more appealing to viewers, which is why SVOD giants, like Amazon and Paramount, are heavily investing in original content for that space.
And with the amount of ad-supported content (47%) now almost equalling the amount of ad-free content being watched (53%),[4] this is an exciting opportunity for advertisers to interact with more diverse audiences than ever before.
New Opportunities
It’s estimated that by 2025, there will be two billion streaming homes globally[5]. And unlike traditional TV, which over-indexes older viewers, CTV reaches every age group, including majority EU5 audiences across key consumer targets (e.g. gamers), purchasing decision-makers, as well as non-native viewers – not to mention younger generations with the purchasing power of the future.[6]
CTV is offering advertisers a scaled solution not only to speak to new audiences, but those more willing to engage. A new survey from DeepIntent reported that 65% of CTV owners found targeted ads actually improved their viewing experience[7]. What’s more, the different monetisation models offered by AVOD and CTV platforms, based on revenue share and inventory split respectively, offer advertisers further opportunities to hit their performance objectives. This means that harnessing CTV’s data intelligence and ACR capabilities to target the right audience on the right platform at the right time would make huge headway on traditional TV advertising.
References:
[1] Strategy Analytics https://news.strategyanalytics.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2021/Strategy-Analytics-Global-Smart-TV-Household-Ownership-to-Exceed-50-by-2026/default.aspx
[2] Statista, eMarketer
[3] Magnite https://magnite.showpad.com/share/Cubx91MuELjctzYzswEyA
[4] Magnite https://magnite.showpad.com/share/Cubx91MuELjctzYzswEyA
[5] Juniper Research https://www.juniperresearch.com/press/ott-tv-video-subscriptions-to-reach-2-billion#:~:text=Globally%20by%202025-,OTT%20TV%20%26%20Video%20Subscriptions%20to%20Reach%202%20billion%20Globally%20by,by%20Services%20from%20Traditional%20Broadcasters&text=A%20new%20report%20by%20Juniper,over%20the%20end%20of%202020
[6] Magnite https://magnite.showpad.com/share/Cubx91MuELjctzYzswEyA
[7] DeepIntent https://www.deepintent.com/deepintent-expands-exclusive-integration-with-lg-ads-solutions-as-joint-study-reveals-64-of-connected-tv-watchers-prefer-to-view-ads-than-pay-more/