Ad-Supported CTV Platforms Rise 55% In Time Spent, Ad-Free Streaming Down 30%

• by Wayne Friedman , 3 hours ago

Subscription-only, ad-free streaming platforms declined 30% (to a 36 share) in time spent during the second half of 2022, while ad-supported connected TV (CTV) rose 55% (up to 48% share), according to data from TVision.

This comes as two major premium streaming platforms -- Netflix and Disney -- both started up advertising-supported options of their respective services in the last months of 2022.

Also FAST platforms (Free Ad-Supported Television) such as the Roku Channel, Tubi, and Pluto TV continued to grow. But viewers were “significantly older and paid less attention than average CTV viewers.”

TVision says 83% of CTV-enabled homes use 7.3 apps (down from 7.7 apps during the fourth quarter of the 2020 pandemic period). Nearly 30% of homes use 10 or more apps -- about the same in late 2020.

Many CTV apps have witnessed slight declines in household reach. Reach is traditionally defined as the total number of people seeing a single piece of content or advertising. Netflix is at 61% (it was at 66% in the first half of 2022); YouTube is at 55%; Hulu 49%; Disney+, 37%; and HBO Max, 33%. Those with rising reach: Amazon Prime, now at 49%; Roku, 33%; Peacock, 29%; Paramount+,24% and Tubi, 23%.

A survey confirms other industry data when it comes to all individual video platforms (including streaming, legacy pay TV, virtual pay TV) ranked by share of time spent on the app.

In that regard, YouTube has ascended to the top with a 16% share.

Netflix is next at 15.3%, followed by Hulu with 11.4%, YouTube TV (the virtual pay TV provider), 6.4%; Spectrum TV, 6.4%; Amazon Prime Video, 5.0%; HBO Max, 3.9%; Peacock, 3.9%; Disney+, 3.8%; and Paramount+, 3.4%.

TVision uses eyes-on-the-screen technology to measure attention and viewing content, measured second-by-second, person-by-person. Viewers two years and older data here was collected from July 1, 2022 through December 31, 2022 from 5,000 U.S. homes, weighted to represent the country. Demographic data was self-reported