VOD subscriptions to hit 2bn by 2025, suggests new research

There will be nearly two billion active VOD subscriptions globally by 2025, according to a new report by UK-based analyst house Juniper Research.

This represents a 65% increase from the end of 2020 and will primarily be driven by traditional broadcasters as they continue to pivot to streaming services to extend their reach and compete in global markets, according to the new research paper, OTT TV & Video Streaming: Evolving Trends, Future Strategies & Market Forecasts 2020-2025 Research.

The research paper, which was written by analysts Nicholas Hunt and James Moar, further notes the trend of traditional broadcasters turning to a hybrid of SVOD and AVOD services – such as with NBC’s Peacock and CBS All Access – with Juniper anticipating these services to account for $1.4bn in advertising spend by 2025.

The Juniper paper also predicts that as SVOD services become more prominent, particularly in the US, different models will be needed to combat subscription fatigue. The report estimates that in 2020 there was an average of four SVOD subscriptions per household in the US, but suggests that growth will begin to slow significantly this year.

“Thanks to this high level of market saturation, streaming providers need to keep their offerings competitive to retain subscribers”, commented research co-author Hunt. “Hybrid monetisation is one way that VOD providers can keep their offerings low-cost, and therefore less likely to be dropped.”

The report also suggests that more than 70% of streamed video sessions in the next five years will take place on smartphones, due to the emergence of social videos on platforms such as TikTok, though the low number of advert slots per video watched means that smartphone advertising spend will only grow at an average rate of 2% each year over the forecast period.