A quarter of US households regularly use free ad-supported OTT services. According to a new study from Parks Associates, 25% of US broadband households have watched video on a ad-based OTT (AVOD) in the past 30 days.
Unlike in SVOD where Netflix is the “boss”, there is no clear market leader for AVODs. The report found that 7% of US broadband households use free and SVOD Roku Channel, 6% use Viacom-CBS’s Pluto TV, and 6% use Crackle, the joint venture between Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment and Sony Pictures Television.
Elizabeth Parks, president of Parks Associates said: “Entertainment and communication features like offline viewing are becoming an important part of consumer viewing habits, especially for younger generations. Nearly 50% of current pay-TV subscribers have a DVR. VOD and DVR are key elements in operator video strategies now that OTT on-demand services are mainstream.”
The report
The report found that a third of US families have subscribed to an OTT subscription service in the past 6 months. Reported figure of 25% is likely to significantly increase in the coming months.
Streaming freemium channel will offer a ad-supported option offering ~7,500 hours of programming, including access to current seasons of newly broadcast series as well as “classic” shows, movies, news and sports, including the Olympics.
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