SVOD vs AVOD: Subscription-based video-on-demand (SVOD) services still reign supreme when it comes to streaming despite the explosion of ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) options. SVOD accounted for 53% of all streaming time, while AVOD accounted for 25%.
- But despite SVOD’s dominance, AVOD is attracting more diverse audiences, which in turn is attracting advertisers. Thirty-nine percent of Tubi viewers and 36% of Paramount’s Pluto TV viewers are Black—over twice as many as linear TV.
Bundles on the horizon: Bundles are already surfacing in the streaming market, but the few that exist are limited to a specific company’s services and don’t address what appears to be a desire for something much broader.
- Disney currently offers a bundle of Disney+, Hulu Live TV, and ESPN+, while Paramount plans to bundle Paramount+ and Showtime. The closest thing to what’s described in Nielsen’s report is Verizon Plus Play, a recently launched hub that allows users to manage subscriptions to streaming and nonstreaming services in one place.
Why it matters: Demand for a large bundle might only increase as the streaming wars heat up, locking more and more digital content behind platform exclusivity. Streaming services are currently warring over exclusive rights to live sports, Japanese animation, studio films, and more. If users find it difficult to hunt down specific content now, it might only become harder as time goes on.
- Streaming has been at a saturation point for some time now, and the space is only going to become more divided and competitive. As more services pop up, consumers are growing frustrated with division and want access to content to be as frictionless as possible.