AVOD Not ‘Just a Revenue Opportunity,’ but a ‘Survival Tactic’: Cinedigm

With the major streaming companies poised to rack up losses exceeding $10 billion collectively this year, “many are pivoting toward an ad-based strategy to offset those losses,” said Cinedigm Chief Strategy Officer Erick Opeka on an earnings call Tuesday for fiscal Q1 ended June 30. Ad-supported streaming “isn't just a revenue opportunity,” he said. “This is a survival tactic.” Cinedigm expects the total ad spend on connected TV advertising “to drive more than $22 billion in revenue next year, and nearly all of that is flowing right out of the cable industry,” said Opeka. For “big-scale streamers” like Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global, “you have a rapidly cannibalizing legacy business that can't support the multibillion- dollar losses of their emerging businesses,” he said.