In 2017, media analysts saw a significant surge in TV streaming services and as we transition into 2018, consumer growth is expected to increase even more. eMarketer predicts that approximately 181.5 million US consumers will use connected TVs once a month at the least, which comes out to over 55% of the US population. Additionally, eMarketer researchers believe that by the time we reach 2021, this number will jump to 194.4 million, increasing to over 58% of the US population (source).
OTT Content Is Putting Pressure ON Traditional TV To Conform
Not only are OTT services changing the way consumers watch TV, it is completely reshaping the television industry while making room for growth and innovation. Since OTT services and providers have given consumers access to unique ways to stream their favorite media on any device at any time–not to mention, at a cheaper cost–more and more TV providers are searching for ways to keep up with such a high level of competition. However, the expansion of IP-delivered media content has actually transformed distribution models while modifying consumer viewing practices as well as advertising means. Since the rise and domination of OTT services, cable and satellite companies have begun to introduce their versions of OTT streaming services.
The Innovation of Advertising
In addition to the growth of OTT services and the innovations they are putting in place as their consumer market continues to expand, more changes are being made to the TV industry in an effort to keep up and conform. For example, advertising efforts have had to adapt to OTT services throughout the years in order to continue to thrive–which they have. Many advertising agencies have carefully monitored the growth in the OTT audience in order to adapt and conform their marketing procedures to match the engagement involved in OTT streaming services. Advertisers have even created new analytic tools that allow them to target OTT audiences with great accuracy, as well as measure the effectivity of a certain campaign they ran on an OTT service. All these efforts allow agencies to better educate themselves in the intricacies of OTT advertising. As time goes on, you’ll find that more and more advertising agencies will start to perfect the art of OTT advertising campaigns.
A Better Experience For Consumers
As the world of OTT continues to grow and expand, research analysts believe that more efforts will be made to improve the overall OTT consumer experience. Since more and more viewers tend to binge-watch their favorite shows, there’s a higher expectation in ads to match their preferences, and to even be shown less frequently–not many viewers enjoy being interrupted by an advertisement, especially one that doesn’t pertain to their interests. With that being said, analysts discovered that many streaming services market the same ads over and over again, all in the same viewing session. This common occurrence has led to low results in overall customer experience; something that these networks need to adjust in months to come. With such high levels of competition in the OTT market, there’s really no room for mistakes.
As time goes on in 2018, media analysts are quite intrigued by the results that will yield in the OTT market. If one thing is certain, the OTT market is still on an upward trend and is likely to grow even more as the years progress.
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