Nearly nine in 10 consumers have access to connected television (CTV) but they may soon be experiencing subscription fatigue. A recent survey from Integral Ad Science (IAS) found that 76 percent of consumers are willing to see ads in exchange for watching free streaming video and 55 percent plan to watch free video streaming services in the next 12 months.
The IAS Streaming Wars report shows that adults aged 18-44 have the highest level of CTV access, with an average of 91 percent having access to a CTV. Preference for CTV has also grown as 59 percent of respondents say they use CTV as the primary method of streaming video.
The majority of consumers (84 percent) say they subscribe to at least one paid streaming video service with 79 percent noting that they currently use Netflix followed by 68 percent who are currently using Amazon Prime Video.
Consumers have access to almost three paid streaming services, indicating the market is potentially nearing saturation. Similarly, 64 percent of consumers say they don’t plan to add a subscription video streaming service in the next year resulting in new challenges for content providers to reach new users.
With 76 percent of consumers open to seeing ads in exchange for free streaming video and with free streaming services on the rise, IAS suggests increasing advertising to reach more consumers as ad supported content models will lead to increased CTV consumption.
Emarketer predicts that advertisers will spend $8.8 billion on CTV in 2020 and surpass $10 billion by 2021. The researcher also says CTV usage in the US will surpass 200 million in 2020.
Findings from IAS Streaming Wars report are based on an online survey conducted among 1,270 consumers in December 2019 aged 18-60.
