A popular topic of discussion at this year’s Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, which officially wraps up today, was advertising on streaming platforms. As linear television audiences continue to decline, causing a choppy ad market, there are real questions about whether ad-supported streaming can make up the difference.
But there are reasons to be optimistic about the future of ad-supported streaming. When looking at the share of Gross Additions by plan tier in May 2024, Antenna observed growth in ad-supported tiers across all SVOD services that offer them when compared to the same period in 2023.
According to Antenna data, only Peacock (70%) and Hulu (61%) had a majority of Gross Additions (meaning new paying Subscribers, including those converted from trials) opting in for ad-supported plans in May 2023. Fast-forward to May 2024 and the list of services with a majority of Gross Adds going to ad-supported plans expands to include Peacock (74%), Hulu (63%), Discovery+ (58%), Disney+ (58%), and Paramount+ (55%).
Max nearly doubled its share of ad-supported Gross Adds to 46% in May 2024 compared to 24% in May 2023. Antenna observed 39% of Netflix’s Gross Adds went to ad-supported plans in May 2024, an increase of +17pts compared to the same period in 2023. And AMC+ and BET+, which didn’t offer ad-supported tier in May 2023, saw 39% and 10%, respectively, of its Gross Adds going to ad-supported plans.
While it remains to be seen whether streaming advertising will make up for the lost inventory and revenue of television, streaming services are gaining real traction with their ad plans.
For more detailed information on Antenna’s methodology and definitions of core metrics, please visit http://www.antenna.live/methodology.
Brendan Brady is a Content Strategy Associate at Antenna, a measurement and analytics company providing insight into purchase behavior and subscription metrics across the new media landscape.
