Exclusives, Originals Key to AVOD Growth

The U.S. AVOD services that have made the biggest investments in original content have seen the most significant usage gains, according to a new study by Ampere Analysis.

Over the last two years, AVOD players such as Roku, Tubi and IMDb TV (now known as Amazon Freevee) have released more than 100 new original titles. Tubi has rolled out 20 originals and saw its usage rise by 164 percent from Q3 2020 to Q3 2021.

“AVOD originals cannot compete with titles from larger SVOD services,” Ampere notes. “But AVOD platforms can’t match the billions of dollars spent by the leading SVOD players in the creation of original content. AVOD services are smaller in scale, and the advertising business model will struggle to justify the sorts of multimillion-dollars-per-hour content investments which the leading SVOD players have applied to new flagship titles. However, according to Ampere’s analysts, one fundamental calculation for investing in original content remains true for both service types: As platforms expand globally, original content investments scale well. Investing in originals is a consistent way to offer exclusive content worldwide without incurring additional licensing costs in each market.”

Originals also serve as a key differentiating factor in an increasingly crowded AVOD field, Ampere continues.

Joseph Hall, analyst at Ampere Analysis, noted, “Despite AVOD originals not having an impact in the wider streaming market—largely limited by their current lack of reach—AVOD platforms should not stop their investment. Our analysis shows that the AVOD platforms with the highest growth in use since Q3 2020 are those with the most released or announced original programming.”