Traditional broadcasters are increasingly turning to hybrid streaming services to keep up demand and reduce end-user prices
There will be around 2bn active subscriptions to on-demand video services in 2025, according to a recent report by Juniper Research, an analyst house for the global communications sector.
This corresponds to an increase of 65% from the figures for 2020.
The research, titled ‘OTT TV & Video Streaming: Evolving Trends, Future Strategies & Market Forecasts 2020-2025’ notes that the prime reason for this growth is because traditional broadcasters are increasingly turning to streaming services to extend reach and compete with online video services like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
“Traditional broadcasters are turning to hybrid services, a combination of subscription and advertising-supported monetisation, like NBC’s Peacock, and CBS All Access, which offer tiered services that still generate subscription revenue but show advertisements in lower-priced bands to keep end user prices down,” a press release from the company stated.
Juniper Research estimates that these services will account for $1.4bn in advertising spend in 2025.
As subscription services become increasingly prominent, different models will be needed to combat subscription fatigue.
“Streaming providers need to keep their offerings competitive to retain subscribers,” Nick Hunt, a research co-author, said. “Hybrid monetisation is one way that VOD providers can keep their offerings low-cost, and therefore less likely to be dropped.”
The report also stated that 70% of streamed video sessions in the next five years will occur on smartphones, due to the emergence of social video platforms like TikTok.
“However, these will not yield a high number of advert slots per video watched, meaning that smartphone advertising spend will only grow at an average rate of 2% each year over the forecast period,” the PR stated.
