AVOD Drives OTT Consumption Gains

The number of AVOD users in the U.S. is now close to 200 million every month, according to Omdia, which also found that the number of different OTT services accessed per user is up to 7.2.

Internationally, India leads in terms of monthly active users on AVOD platforms, where the number stands at more than 500 million, Omdia says.

In terms of OTT services accessed, India leads at 8.9 per month (down from 9.1 a year ago), followed by the U.S. at 7.2, the U.K. at 5.4, France at 4.6, Brazil at 4.5 and Germany at 3.9.

Across the seven markets surveyed, Omdia also found that 8 in 10 free AVOD users subscribe to an online video service and 7 in 10 have pay TV.

In the next three years, Omdia estimates that global online advertising revenues will near $120 billion, outperforming subscription video services by just over 20 percent. For broadcasters seeing linear TV advertising revenues fall, offering hybrid solutions will be key.

“The simultaneous rise in both subscription online video and free AVOD consumption highlights increasing consumer awareness around content access,” said Fateha Begum, principal analyst at Omdia. “Free AVOD users show a high propensity to consume content; they are content hungry, not cost-conscious. As on AVOD services grow in popularity and improve their content offering and device accessibility, paid services will have to work harder.”