Revenue from free ad-supported video-on-demand services is set to reach nearly $27 billion globally this year, according to one research company.
Another report just released by Magid, however, suggests the AVOD business has plenty of runway. In short, not that many consumers know about it.
According to an online survey of 2,232 U.S. adult consumers in early March, just before the quarantine started, only 32% had awareness of Roku Channel, a leading free streaming service.
As the chart below shows, no other AVOD platform registered more awareness than that.
The Magid research has some serious flaws
Notably, the company surveyed consumers on Peacock and Quibi prior to the launches of both platforms, and included the responses in the AVOD report. Peacock has a free version with limited content, but Quibi is only viewable at a base price of $4.99 a month.
Also notable: Amazon’s IMDb TV was totally omitted. IMDb TV is a free ad-supported VOD service, owned and operated by one of the biggest companies in the video streaming business.
But we digress—the Magid survey does portray a component of the streaming business that seems to have a “massive runway.”
Measuring pre-social-distancing reach, Roku Channel was also the leader, registering only 15%.
