Global Streaming Ad Share Grows To 28%, Subscriptions Still Dominant

• by Wayne Friedman , over 1 hour ago

While advertising will continue to be a strong and growing part of the global streaming marketplace, subscriptions will continue to dominate the business for years to come, according to global services and marketing research company PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

In four years, advertising is estimated to account for about 28% of global streaming revenues -- up from 20% in 2023. Subscription revenues are projected to have a 72% share of all global streaming business.

Statista estimates the worldwide streaming revenues will rise to $316.4 billion this year. SymphonyAI projects that this will increase to $427 billion by 2026.

PWC estimates that global subscriptions overall will slow down to a growth rate of 5% a year to 2.1 billion by 2028 up from 1.6 billion in 2023.

Over a five-year span, global average revenue per streaming video subscribers will just inch up to $67.66 in 2028 from $65.21 in 2023.

Authors of the report say while streaming usage continues to rise, the marketplace will continue to see consolidation, as well as more live sports programming and password-sharing crackdowns. It also sees continued ad-revenue growing amid industry competition.

Looking at the broader global advertising picture, PwC says revenue will grow at a compound annual rating of  6.7% through 2028.

It sees the U.S. -- the largest global advertising marketplace -- rising 4.3% through that period. Global advertising is expected to hit $1 trillion in 2026.