Data: Live TV driving ad viewership
March 27, 2024
The FreeWheel Video Marketplace Report (VMR) – based on aggregated data from FreeWheel, the advertising technology platform in Europe – highlights the changing dynamics of how enterprise-class content owners and distributors are monetising premium digital video content. With FreeWheel’s coverage and capabilities in Europe and the US, the company says the data set is one of the largest available on the usage and monetisation of professional, rights-managed ad-supported video content across the two regions.
This latest edition of the VMR explores video advertising trends for the second half of 2023 in select European countries and the US, with additional insight on the unique value proposition of the live, ad-supported environment.
Maintaining strong growth amid a softened global ad market, ad views across digital premium video in the two regions saw an 8 per cent total uplift during the second half of 2023, with an impressive double-digit increase in Europe (17 per cent) and 6 per cent in the US. Year-over-year analysis shows CTV ad views gained substantial traction in H2 2023 in both regions and especially so among European audiences, as flexible digital platforms become more popular: growing by 24 per cent versus the same period in 2022 while the US has experienced a healthy rise of 10 per cent.
There are also key regional differences in the rapidly expanding opportunities offered by the growth of ad views across live premium video. The vast majority of general ad views (82 per cent) happen on larger screens for US audiences, with CTV making up 84 per cent of American live ad views. Conversely, Europe experiences an even split between large (53 per cent) and small screens (47 per cent), highlighting the real-time engagement opportunity across multiple screens.
The fluid engagement of live audiences across devices represents a significant opportunity for brands and publishers to generate more synergies on the main screen and beyond. This is a trend that is set to become even more pronounced this year in Europe, with an increased offering of FAST channels and live content, as well as the approach of the Olympic Games.
Regional variations in live ad views also hinge on the progress in programmatic trading and the use of FAST channels, with the US seeing 38 per cent of live ad views transacted programmatically and FAST channels accounting for 25 per cent of distribution, compared to 22 per cent and 7.5 per cent in Europe respectively. Overall, programmatic ad views grew 50 per cent YOY in Europe.