5 minute read
Opinion - Generation Media
The FAST changing world of AV media
Ever find yourself wondering what the latest media acronym means? You’re not alone, particularly when it comes to AV (Audio Visual) media. Here, Jonathan explains all.
The media landscape is ever changing, but sometimes the micro changes that occur are accompanied with new ways to categorise media channels, which from a topline perspective appear incredibly similar to one another. The AV landscape is perhaps most guilty of this, for example:
VOD – Video On Demand
AVOD – Advertising-based VOD (i.e. Samsung TV or YouTube)
BVOD – Broadcaster VOD (i.e. ITVX)
SVOD – Subscription VOD (i.e. Netflix prior to the introduction of advertising)
HVOD – Hybrid VOD (platforms that are both funded by subscription and advertising i.e. Disney+).
FAST – Free Ad-supported Streaming TV
To a viewer, and especially a child, they are all considered TV. Given that children are regularly using multiple methods to access “TV”, for advertisers that means either selecting the most impactful method for their budget, or where budget allows capturing as many as possible to build reach. This is because traditional Linear TV is now limited in the reach it can provide children’s advertisers. With CITV and Tiny Pop no longer airing in the UK, it is difficult for brands to achieve more than 25-30% reach via Linear TV alone.
The decline in reach has been driven by migration of audiences to the newer and emerging methods of accessing “TV”. Of these methods, SVOD (traditionally Netflix and Disney+) has dominated the viewing landscape in the UK. Kids and the Screen (KATS) data from Giraffe Insights highlighted that in October 2023, SVOD accounted for 33% of viewing time (followed by Online Video at 26%, Live TV at 20% and AVOD at 13%). Historically however the problem for marketers, at least those without content placed on these platforms, is that they offered no advertising opportunities. This has of course changed now giving rise to the HVOD acronym, with Disney+, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video becoming hybrid in terms of how they monetise their platforms.
Whilst no official data has been released regards what percentage of subscribers have ads enabled, estimates place it anywhere up to 15-20% for each of Disney+ and Netflix. Amazon Prime Video is considerably higher, given it made ads mandatory with the option of paying more to remove them.
This does mean, confirmed by testing campaigns run on the platforms, that inventory levels are now sufficient to deliver campaigns of reasonable scale. For toy brands, Disney+ remains the only one of the three which will allow some form of advertising to children’s specific content (excluding pre-school). The good news is that the cost of Disney+ is the most competitive, especially since it introduced discounts for shorter creative lengths, making it comparable to established kids BVOD and AVOD platforms such as ITVX, Sky Media and Kidoodle.
Outside of HVOD, one of the more recent and interesting developments is the explosion of FAST channels available in the UK. These are channels which, whilst served via a digital signal on connected TVs, offer viewers a traditional push style schedule of programming rather than a pull style on demand experience. They are viewed as great content discovery vehicles by content publishers, and why Disney in the US has launched FAST style channels within Disney+ to help the discoverability of lesser watched titles (expect to see this rollout across Europe in 2025 if it proves successful). The FAST market is now well established in the USKantar reported in January 2024 that over half of US households were watching FAST channels. Whilst the “cord-cutting” phenomena in this market means the UK market will likely never reach the same heights, it is a growing market, with the UK leading the way across Europe. Perhaps most prominently for the UK children’s market, Narrative made the decision to transition Tiny Pop, at the time the No.1 commercial Linear TV channel in the UK, to a FAST delivery service only, in March 2024. Whilst it is yet to reach the same level of viewing as it enjoyed on Linear TV, it is growing rapidly and should form a part of AV media plans this Q4 (data reveals that digital viewing minutes for Narrative’s channels increased by +182% YoY in May).
Of the multiple options available to advertisers, AVOD arguably provides the highest reach when you take into consideration that YouTube is technically an AVOD platform (although defined as Online Video in the KATS data), and more and more inventory is being served on a connected TV set. This is why YouTube now commands the highest share of advertising spend from toy advertisers in the UK, and globally, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Beyond YouTube, the likes of LG and Samsung TV offer innovative AVOD solutions using ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) technology. These platforms also offer increasing reach, with KATS identifying AVOD as the fastest growing method of viewing content for children aged 2-12 in the UK. Covering more than 50% of UK households between them, LG and Samsung TV not only provide standard pre and mid roll opportunities on their vast array of children and family focused VOD channels. In addition, they can serve static wand video ads on their home screens, using ACR data to inform targeting - for example, serving Paw Patrol toy ads to households which have viewed Paw Patrol content. This data driven evolution of the AV points to an exciting future for AV media and will help maintain its relevancy in a digital dominated world.
With the constant change, navigating the new AV landscape can be daunting. If you would like to learn more, and how they can be best harnessed to meet your marketing objectives, get in touch to set up a free induction into all things AV.
