Turning Digital - The Times They Are A-Changin'
XX ITMedia Consulting Annual Report

Out today, 4 October

For 20 years, Turning Digital, ITMedia Consulting's Annual Report, has been analyzing and anticipating the major transformations that have accompanied the evolution of Television in Europe.

This year's Report certifies how TV market revenues in Western Europe in 2021 have largely increased, after the decline in 2020, which had been caused primarily by the effect of the pandemic on the advertising market. This is due to the massive recovery of TV advertising investment, together with the steady growth of pay-TV, resulting in a significant +5.8% over 2020.

Overall pay-TV growth was 2.4% in 2021, well below both the market average and 4.6% in 2020. The boost given by SVOD has been mitigated by the retreat of traditional linear services. In fact, a major reshuffling of the entire industry is taking place: SVOD services, whose revenues continued to grow until 2021, are now competing with traditional operators, whose revenues are stagnating or, in several countries, declining. Thus the VOD component, which with an average annual growth rate of 27%, has risen in just five years from 14% to 36% of the total, even becoming the majority share of revenues in some countries.

Television advertising in turn rose to 31.0 billion euros, a level even higher than 2019, pre-Covid, with an impressive +17.3 % over 2020. Despite this, online advertising as a whole surpassed TV advertising in most Western European countries.

OTT video advertising (AVOD), has now entered the video entertaiment market for clear advantages over linear TV, offering advertisers a more personalized and efficient proposition.

On a European scale, the European AVOD market has seen limited growth so far, at the same time some operators have begun to adopt hybridization strategies from the United States, mixing AVOD and SVOD offerings to maximize their revenues. ITMedia Consulting estimates that total AVOD revenue in Western Europe in 2021 exceeded 6 billion euros. This is about 20% of total TV advertising.

The Metaverse, in this everchanging context, is destined to be the next big thing. Despite the doubts of many, there is a growing consensus that it refers to a future, always-on version of the Internet, in its Web 3.0 perspective. So, the key question might be, "If they want to reach young people, do companies continue to turn to TV or do they go where young people actually are (in gaming and the metaverse)?"

The annual report "Turning Digital - The Times They Are A-Changin'", now in its 20th edition, is a unique study to understand the major transformations of Television in Europe and delve into key trends in the industry.
 

- To purchase the Report, click here

- To see the index, click here

- For further information, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.