A new report from ComCast-owned media ad platform provider FreeWheel suggests that hybrid video on demand (HVoD) services are becoming more prevalent as content platforms embrace ad-supported tiers.
The report says that despite continued economic caution among marketers, ad view growth on premium video remained healthy in both the US (six per cent growth) and Europe (15 per cent growth) in the first half of 2023. Significant regional differences in viewing habits continue to exists, with large screen viewing through connected TV and set-top box platforms making up 81 per cent of ad views in the US, while in Europe, audiences split their time between large (53 per cent) and small screens (47 per cent).
Other trends picked up in the report include an 80 per cent increase in ad placements that utilise audience targeting in the US market, which is seen as part of a move towards refining the viewer experience through a push for relevancy in the ads served to individual viewers. This is in stark contrast to Europe, where due to stringent data regulations (such as GDPR) and less data fluidity, targeting is primarily based on demographics.
Ad views in the US are evenly split across live and video on demand (VoD), whereas in Europe – where free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) adoption is slower and linear remains strong, says the report – audiences are largely accessing VoD (82 per cent) to watch long-form content.
FreeWheel said that its Video Marketplace Report “highlights the changing dynamics of how enterprise-class content owners and distributors are monetising premium digital video content. The data set used for this report is one of the largest available on the usage and monetisation of professional, rights-managed ad supported video content worldwide and is based on aggregated advertising data collected through the FreeWheel platform.”
