This report reviews our final 2020 numbers and new 2021 forecast for US time spent with media, highlighting pre- and post-pandemic estimates and expectations. Special attention is paid to TV, connected TV, OTT, digital audio, and social media.

The forecast: In 2021, US Roku monthly users will increase by 11.5%, reaching 111.7 million monthly users. With these figures, Roku maintains its position as the most-used connected TV (CTV) device in the US market, though Amazon Fire TV is catching up.

In the US, Hulu is the fastest-growing subscription streamer on connected TV devices, with the number of households that watch it via those devices rising by 53% between January 2020 and June 2021.

YouTube viewers are pivoting to TV screens as their method of choice for watching content, a trend that experienced significant growth before and during the height of the pandemic. We estimate that 113.1 million US YouTube viewers, 52.8% of total viewers, watched the platform's content on connected TV (CTV) devices in 2020. Those numbers will increase to 130.8 million and 57.7% by 2022.

How we got here: Over the past several years, Hulu has consistently drawn the highest share of connected TV (CTV) ad revenue, aided by its early entrance to the streaming marketplace, as well as the advantages afforded by parent companies Comcast and Disney. We estimate Hulu’s ad revenue will reach $3.13 billion this year, a 44% increase from 2020.

In the US, Netflix is the top video streaming platform on connected TV devices, drawing 26% of all viewing time via devices like smart TVs and game consoles in June 2021.

The one-click checkout provider made its solution available to publishers, display ads, entertainment venues, and smart TVs.

This comes as users move away from internet devices associated with working from home, like laptops and tablets, and toward entertainment ones, like smartphones and smart TVs. Dive deeper:. The increase in US time spent with media is driven by the "other" connected devices category. This refers to devices like smart TVs, game consoles, and internet-connected devices.

In all, we project two-thirds of the US population will watch CTV content in 2022. That figure is about 14 percentage points higher than it was five years ago. We project a 33.1% increase in connected TV (CTV) ad revenues for 2022, to $18.89 billion. The rate of that growth will decline but remain robust over the next five years.

However, massive growth in CTV is eating into desktop/laptop’s modest share of programmatic digital display ad spending. Next year, CTV will surpass desktop/laptop by this metric. We expect CTV to continue gaining share of programmatic display ad spending as programmatic penetration in CTV increases and the overall CTV ad market continues to grow.

Video is still a driving force for digital ad spending, but the connected TV (CTV) opportunity remains unclear. Video is already the major portion of digital display ad spending, and it’s set to get even bigger. There’s also a lot of interest in the CTV opportunity—but it appears to be relatively small for now, while marketers figure out the best way to approach this space. What’s Inside.

Increased political ad spending contributed to a banner year for connected TV.

By comparison, just 28.5% of all CTV users are under 25 years old. CTV viewers include anyone who watched digital content on a TV screen. OTT viewers include anyone who streamed digital video across all devices. We forecast CTV viewers by age but not OTT viewers by age, which is why streaming service viewers in this section were compared with CTV viewers rather than OTT viewers.

Invest in CTV as Traditional TV Viewership Shifts to Streaming. Connected TV (CTV) is on the rise in Latin America as viewing habits go digital. Consumers are cutting the cord in favor of digital streaming services. While the majority of digital video viewers stream on mobile devices, CTV usage is becoming more commonplace.

Formats across linear TV and digital video, which includes connected TV (CTV), will account for $144.55 billion, or about 42% of total ad spending. Without a common system of measurement that connects the dots across mass and one-to-one advertising in online and offline ecosystems, effectively allocating video budgets to align with evolving consumer behavior will be difficult.