LONDON—It doesn’t look like consumers will stop paying for streaming anytime soon, as global OTT revenue is projected to nearly double from 2020 to 2026, according to new forecasts from Digital TV Research.
Per Digital TV Research, OTT revenue across the globe (138 countries) totaled $106 billion in 2020. By 2026, that number is projected to reach $210B, with an increase of $23 billion estimated to take place in 2021 alone.
The top five countries in OTT revenue are expected to command two-thirds of these revenues by 2026. This is actually down from the 71% that the top five represented in 2020, which indicates that the rest of the world is growing in their OTT spending.
The U.S. will continue to be the biggest OTT spender, with Digital TV Research Principal Analyst Simon Murray estimating that the U.S. will hold a 42% share of global revenues in 2026. Revenues are estimated to grow from $42 billion in 2020 to $88 billion in 2026.
China is expected to be among the biggest growers in OTT revenue, with a forecasted growth of about $8.4 billion to bring its total to $24 billion. Japan is expected to nearly double (adding $4.5 billion) for an estimated total of $9.2 billion, while India is likely to triple by adding $4.7 billion for a total of $6.7 billion.
Drilling down into OTT specifics, SVOD revenue is expected to climb by $59 billion between 2020 and 2026, which would bring it to a total of $126 billion. However, its share of the market will dip from 62% to 60%, as ad-supported AVOD platforms are projected to see a revenue increase of $39 billion that would bring its total to $66 billion, representing 32% of the market. AVOD had 26% share of the market in 2020, according to Digital TV Research.
The full report is available from Digital TV Research.
