Lat Am subscribers, ads buoy up VoD growth predicts Omdia’s Rua Aguete

Omdia’s María Rua Aguete at Content Americas

CONTENT AMERICAS: Streamers and online video platforms are expected to see continued growth buoyed by the Lat Am market and ad revenues, according to London-based industry analysis firm Omdia.

Speaking to attendees at C21’s Content America conference in Miami, María Rua Aguete, senior director at Omdia, revealed that online video subscriptions are expected to reach two billion by 2027.

Despite the somewhat weaker recent years for the streamers, Omdia expect 2023 to deliver promising figures in the OTT space, with 143 million new additions to online video subscriptions across the globe, with 39 million of those originating from the US market alone.

Rua Aguete highlighted Lat Am’s increasingly important role in the industry, highlighting the region’s “fantastic growth” due to the arrival of new players such as ViX+, which has helped strengthen the region’s position in the market.

“After a wonderful 2020 with a growth of additions of more than 30 million, Lat Am will get 60% of the additions they got in 2020: 19 million new subscriptions in Latin America [in 2023],” she said.

The market leader, Netflix, has managed to bounce back and recover its subscription figures following a staggering loss of subscribers in early 2022. Omdia expects its ad-supported tier in Mexico and Brazil to help bolster its growth over the coming year.

The analysis firm predicted advertising will play a significant role in the industry’s development over 2023. Rua Aguete told attendees that online video advertising revenue is set to “overtake all other types of media revenues” with over US$221bn in revenue expected this year.

The senior director highlighted the boom in original Spanish-language content across the major streaming platforms. In 2015 only one original Spanish title was produced, while last year there were 127 original Spanish-language titles across a number of different platforms.

Going forward, Rua Aguete billed unscripted titles, female-led sports documentaries, and reality as some of the hottest properties in the market.