Most streaming services struggle to crack 5% of the market
But a handful have succeeded
The number of companies that generate more than $1 billion in annual US CTV ad sales grew from two in 2020 to five in 2024. With ad dollars spreading out among services, few platforms have enough viewership to command more than 5% of CTV ad revenues. But a few companies still stand out—namely YouTube, Hulu, and Amazon.
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Methodology for our graphic
Revenue data came from our March 2024 US CTV ad spending forecast. Our forecast includes digitally sold ad inventory that appears on TV screens. It excludes linear TV inventory. Time spent data came from the April edition of Nielsen’s The Gauge. It excludes “linear streaming” such as YouTube TV.
Our Amazon CTV forecast includes ads sold for Prime Video, Freevee, Fire TV, and Twitch that are viewed on TV sets. Because we do not break out Prime Video individually, Amazon is not included in the graphic above. Likewise, Roku is not in the graphic because we do not break out The Roku Channel in our forecast. The graphic also includes gross ad revenues for YouTube, rather than net ad revenues. Because YouTube shares a substantial portion of its ad revenues with creators, the gross forecast better reflects the scope of its ad business.
Amazon made the biggest splash in streaming advertising this year when it launched an ad tier for Prime Video in January and defaulted users onto it. We forecast that Amazon will receive $3.13 billion in CTV ad revenues in 2024, putting it in third place behind Hulu and YouTube, and ahead of Roku. In April, Nielsen estimated that time spent with Amazon Prime Video was slightly higher than time spent with Hulu.
Among services included in the previous graphic, only YouTube and Hulu account for more than 5% apiece in both time spent and ad revenues. YouTube reigns in both categories, accounting for about one-fourth of both total time spent and ad revenues. Netflix is the other standout in time spent, representing about one-fifth of the market in that category, but its ad business has been off to a slow start.
Read the full report, US CTV Time Spent vs. Ad Spending 2024.