Checking In On AVOD

We’ve previously written about the rise of AVOD and how consumers are incorporating ad-supported plans into their own personal mix of subscription streaming services. But how are AVOD plans holding up? And for those formerly ad-free services that have rolled out ad-supported tiers, are they gaining traction? 

To better understand what’s happening, we looked at sign-ups for Disney+, Netflix, and Max to see how the share of sign-ups has shifted over time.

Since launching its ad-supported plans in Q4’22, Antenna data shows that Disney has more than doubled the share of AVOD sign-ups in the U.S. to 54% in the month of October 2023. In aggregate, over the past three months, 57% of Disney+ sign-ups have been for ad-supported plans (including both standalone and bundle options). Netflix, which also launched its first ad-supported plan in Q4’22, saw just below one-third of sign-ups opting for ad-supported in October 2023.

Of course, Disney+, Netflix, and Max are all services that originally launched as ad-free and later came to market with ad-supported offerings. When we look at the share of subscribers by plan tier across the Premium SVOD services that offer them, we see a wide range of results. In Peacock’s case, more than three out of four subscribers have the ad-supported plan, but across the board all services that have launched ad-tiers are seeing consumers opt-in to their ad-supported plans.

For more detailed information on Antenna’s methodology and definitions of core metrics, please visit http://www.antenna.live/methodology.