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Video streaming has become the new black. It has dramatically increased popularity and is expected to account for 82% of all internet traffic by 2022. With the arrival of new technologies, an increase in bandwidth, and mobile device penetration, it’s now possible for it to develop even faster. Advanced video quality has grown not only the number of consumers but also content owners and separate businesses. How long can video streaming remain on this success trajectory?
The competition in the video streaming market is immense. Viewers can choose from a large number of services, and the latter’s prime purpose is to keep their audience. The new breed of content providers gives consumers the ability to watch their favorite shows on any device over the internet. In other words, users can forget about scheduled TV programs and consume content when and where they want to.
The real breakthrough happened during lockdown. Billions of people stayed isolated in their homes and searched for possible ways of being entertained – the popularity of streaming services couldn’t help but skyrocket. Digital video time spending is rapidly growing, with 108 min forecast for US adults in the near future.
Key Trends in the Streaming World
Streaming content through various applications, gaming consoles, and multimedia devices like Roku or Apple TV makes connected TV a compelling media moving forwards. The global OTT streaming market has grown from $104.11 billion in 2019 to $161.37 billion in 2020 at an astonishing compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 55.0%.
Ultra-High Definition (4K) TVs are a key trend in the OTT market. This is currently the highest level of high-definition video quality available to viewers. That’s why all the major streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video have included premium 4K content in their services.
Illegal content is another trend shaping the industry. An increasing threat from piracy and illegal streaming is becoming a key factor limiting the growth of the OTT streaming market. In just 2019, the illegal sale of video content cost the industry $9.1 billion, with analysts predicting the damage could hit $12.5 billion by 2024. Live TV channels are not an exception in terms of safety.
Live Streaming. The pandemic has become a mold-breaking force in live streaming. The WHO now on TikTok, John Legend, and Chris Martin’s free live concerts, celebrities’ reading books live-streamed, and many more examples – all prove that further transformation is inevitable. In any event, live streaming had already become popular a long time before COVID-19 arrived.
CTV/OTT environment popularity. More and more vloggers, content aggregators, and resellers are considering moving beyond Youtube and TikTok. It’s expected that the OTT/CTV environment will show the highest market growth rates and become dominant in the ad tech market in 2021 and beyond, which explains the deep adoption levels of advertising and publishing platforms
OTT/CTV Forecasts for Advertisers and Publishers
Ad budgets spent on streaming video are predicted to surge by 31% in 2020. For instance, Hulu experienced a rise of 23% in 2020, according to eMarketer, while ad spending on Roku is growing by up to 45% this year. This makes the CTV/OTT ecosystem perfect for both advertisers and publishers. At the same time, we at VlogBox always emphasize the importance of a sort of symbiosis. Youtube, TikTok, Instagram, etc remain large pools of viewers, engagement, and subscribers – you don’t need to give them up. But CTV is an additional opportunity that helps you enlarge an audience, reach those people who are sometimes unreachable through the above sources, and monetize. It’s not about competition, but continuous improvement.
Advertising is shifting towards a hyper-personalized approach with no place for cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all commercials. The era of personalization and transparency is already here. The two aspects can result in higher ROAS for advertisers and channel owners. The problem of ad optimization is another issue, which is related not purely to choosing a payment model and setting a budget, but also to realizing where to invest money or what percent of the whole installs comes from paid campaigns. Hence, there’s a high necessity for analytical and attribution software development.
What ad formats will prevail? There are now fewer ads per episode, and “non-disruptive ad formats” such as “pause ads” are currently being tested. Streaming video is becoming more interactive since the augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) elements have been introduced. In the future, viewers will be able to request more information about a product or service as well as purchase it without switching devices.
Since mobile users have better ways to interact with advertising, mobile devices are emerging as the medium of choice for streaming platforms.
Key Takeaways
Consumers worldwide are ditching traditional TV in favor of over-the-top video services. The number of cord-cutters and cord-nevers is climbing in the US, especially in the pandemic era. It’s time to explore the advertising possibilities of this brave new world, from adopting personalized approaches to considering attribution software and innovative ad formats.
Nikita Platonenko
CEO, VlogBox
VlogBox aims to revolutionize the world of vlogging and content distribution, proving that it’s time to go beyond YouTube and Instagram monetization. Striving to perfect its suite of content distribution services, VlogBox covers app development, approval procedures on CTV/OTT services, and monetization of channels, bringing high yields to content creators.
