Media consumption made affordable with support of ads
Streaming platforms, both music and video, are opting for a marriage of convenience with advertising, creating ad-supported tiers to tap into new markets and subscribers who could otherwise not afford their products. Netflix and Disney+ are prominent examples of this move, but others follow suit. In the world of audio for example, Spotify is experiencing steady growth in ad-supported subscribers. Free-ad-supported-TV is another signal of changing media consumption habits. The growing popularity of FAST is spelling value growth for the market. By 2028, FAST is expected to generate revenue of over 17 billion dollars, the majority of it in the United States.Home entertainment likely to lead media usage
Home entertainment, as it will be less expensive and more comfortable, will be the focus of consumers and companies alike. Recent surveys in the U.S. show that the preference for watching movies at home rather than in theaters increased in 2022. Only a little over a third of consumers said they would rather watch a movie in a theater in 2022, compared to 45 percent four years earlier. However, in this very competitive market, media providers will need to make certain strategic choices, not only to attract new users but also to retain their current ones. Stepping ahead of consumer expectations of affordable and balanced offerings, industry leaders need to bet on digital. Data already indicates that while pay TV penetration is dwindling, the OTT market is set to grow in the next few years. Technological advances on the Internet of Things market, including TV manufacturing, are shaping the future of media consumption.Media users are on the internet
Sending e-mails, searching on Google, and streaming content of any kind – these and many more activities happen on the internet worldwide in just one internet minute in a day. In fact, global internet users spend a quarter of the day online. Social media as well as video and audio streaming, in particular, are popular pastimes. As such, it comes as no surprise that brands are investing millions of dollars into digital advertising to promote their products and services. Online gaming is also more prevalent, and consumers are experimenting with different ways to play, such as via cloud gaming services which allow cross-platform gaming on the consumer’s device of choice. Globally a third of gamers play on mobile devices for up to seven hours per week.All things considered, with rising inflation causing price hikes for everything from essential groceries to entertainment, consumers are forced to make more conscious choices about what they subscribe to and how much they pay for it. Faced with such decisions, they are likely to choose free offers (which means ad-supported) or bundles, to maximize their variety of entertainment and minimize the cost. As of today, this is the most likely future of media consumption.