Ad spending hasn’t been able to keep up with rise of connected TV, study reveals
Roughly 55% of the US population will have access to a connected TV this year, a forecast from eMarketer predicted.
Connected TV may draw over 20 million US users by 2020, but ad spend hasn't been catching up a study finds / Panos Sakalakis via Unsplash
That finding, which sees that an estimated 182.7 million Americans are connected TV users, is a predicted 8.6% rise from 2017’s total. The forecast expects a total of 204.1 million users by 2022, about 60.1% of the US population. When adjusted for how many households have a device, this marks 71.6% of American homes, or 88.7 million households in the next five years.
This rise has been offset by a lack of spending in that space. According to Tru Optik connected TV spending will reach an estimated $8.2bn — nearly double the amount of spending in 2017 — and looked for it to jump to $20.1bn.
However, this only accounted for 12% of total TV ad spend for this year, and in terms of digital video ad spend, this also accounts for 25.6% of monetary investment in that space. This, paired with findings from Extreme Reach that revealed viewability of ads on OTT and Connected TV devices reach upwards of 90%, may tell a picture that the opportunity is right for brands to invest more dollars in the medium.
Connected TV and OTT’s rise has been well-documented, with one study mentioning that 10% of consumers worldwide use a subscription service. With AT&T’s disputed merger with Time Warner entering another chapter and cross-platform deals entering a fever pitch, the scramble to produce quality content through more flexible options is evident.
But as those forecasts and readings show, it’s not clear as to whether brands are impressed enough to fully invest.