Smart TV Becoming Battleground for Media Companies: Futuresource

TV with 190 channels, and Samsung offering its TV Plus service with 160 free channels. Futuresource said the new wave of free ad-supported television channels has expanded the definition of ad-supported VOD, citing Pluto TV, Xumo, Tubi and The Roku Channel as services that offer curated channel electronic program guides supported by VOD programming. The value of the AVOD market is expected to grow by at least 50% this year, with new-wave services topping $1 billion in revenue, not including Roku, which reaches 54 million U.S. households, Futuresource said. The research firm estimates four in 10 U.S. online households regularly use one of the “new wave” of AVOD services, up from a third in 2019. Traditional AVOD services, including YouTube and Hulu, continue to grow. YouTube’s 2021 revenue is on course to exceed $20 billion this year, said the report. Social media video advertising revenue is on the rise and “significant.” Facebook’s total ad revenue for 2020 was about $80 billion, it noted. Content holders increasingly see AVOD as an important component of their future revenue streams, Futuresource said. Most AVOD content is nonexclusive, which could be seen as a model to deliver “quantity over quality,” Futuresource said, but it noted ViacomCBS’ Pluto TV is looking to boost the quality of its offerings. The service negotiated a deal for Narcos, for instance, while NBCUniversal’s Peacock negotiated a third-party deal with Pluto TV to stream classic movies such as The Godfather. The breadth of curated content over Pluto’s 250 channels means there’s “something for everyone.” Media companies are moving toward hybrid models, such as NBCUniversal’s subscription VOD/AVOD approach with Peacock TV and Xumo, Futuresource noted. HBO Max is looking to add a basic free tier this year, and Viacom has a direct-to-consumer strategy to reach a broad audience: CBS All Access will become SVOD service Paramount+ next month, complementing the ad-supported Pluto.