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

Following a strong launch in November 2019, Disney+ is on track to surpass $4 billion in US subscription revenues by 2022. In its first full year, Disney+ has grown rapidly, spurred by in-demand content and stay-at-home orders. In fact, the service will help The Walt Disney Co. reach Netflix’s share of the market by 2022, according to the inaugural eMarketer OTT subscription revenue forecast by Insider Intelligence.

In this year’s “Key Digital Trends” report, we examine changes coming to the digital media and technology landscape in 2021—including legislation, privacy, entertainment, social media, and more—and why they matter to marketers.

Today marks a big milestone at Insider Intelligence: We launched our new platform, unifying our two brands (eMarketer and Business Insider Intelligence) into a single online experience and expanded our Financial Services coverage. We also just published a report that’s been long in the making--and it happens to be our very first under the new brand.

Business Insider Intelligence senior research analyst Audrey Schomer, eMarketer senior analyst Ross Benes, and forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom discuss the streaming wars. How far along is Disney+ after just one year? What might slow down its skyrocketing growth? Can it knock Netflix out of first place? And how will a price hike affect Netflix?

The COVID-19 outbreak undermined many of our pre-pandemic US forecasts. Insight can now be gleaned by examining the difference between what we thought would happen as of February 2020 vs. what our forecasts now show.

A little over a year since its debut in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands, Disney+ is now officially available to consumers in Latin America. Subscribers to the platform will be able to enjoy unlimited access to the company’s vast array of content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, Fox, and more.

A major challenge in measuring connected TV (CTV) audiences is that most of the time people spend streaming happens devoid of advertising.

Western Europe showed a strong increase in SVOD platform adoption in recent years, a trend that is driven by US players such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, as well as newer streaming services and local players entering the market. The streaming wars are about to hit Western Europe, driving exponential growth in both subscription OTT and Netflix adoption.

eMarketer principal analysts Mark Dolliver and Nicole Perrin join junior analyst Blake Droesch, and vice president of content studio at Insider Intelligence Paul Verna to discuss the "minimigration" from major social networks to self-proclaimed "free speech" app Parler, targeted ads on network TV, the popularity of Starbucks mobile ordering, Netflix linear TV offering, The New York Times' digital milestone, how to travel to work at the speed of sound, and more.

Today’s sociopolitical events have lit a fire under brands to address social injustice and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in deeper ways than they have in the past. Companies are using marketing and advertising to respond to and support discussions about systemic racism and the Black Lives Matter protests, the fight for LGBTQ rights, the #MeToo movement, the COVID-19 pandemic, and issues of immigration reform, to name a few.

During a year where investments in most advertising channels shrunk or stalled, connected TV ad spending is poised to keep growing.

As the coronavirus spread in the first half of 2020, we might have expected radical changes in the media behavior of consumers around the world. But for the most part, that didn’t happen. That’s just one insight to emerge from eMarketer’s newly released 2020 Global Media Intelligence (GMI) Report, a detailed look at internet users’ engagement with digital and traditional media in 42 major markets, produced in collaboration with Starcom Worldwide and GlobalWebIndex.

The pandemic has brought an influx of new users for subscription OTT, live videos, and video games in 2020, but other activities such as social networking, mobile messaging, and digital video haven’t seen the same bump.

With citywide lockdowns and ongoing social distancing measures in place, people throughout the Asia-Pacific region are spending more time at home consuming all forms of media—especially digital video.

What has been dubbed the “streaming wars” in many markets—especially in the US—is more like a skirmish in Canada. Despite the influx of US-based services like Disney+ and Apple TV+ in the past year, and the presence of homegrown services like Bell Media’s Crave nationally and Vidéotron’s Club Illico in Quebec, Netflix is still by far the most popular subscription OTT service in Canada.

TV ad spending takes a hit as marketers adjust their budgets amid a recession.

Digital video viewership in the UK will continue to rise this year. The pandemic has provided a particularly significant impetus for subscription video-on-demand services, while connected TVs have become the consumption device of choice.

Our forecast for digital video viewers in Canada highlights greater consumption of the medium during the pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated cord-cutting and boosted streaming video viewing.