North American OTT Revenues To Reach Nearly $100 Billion by 2026

Revenues from OTT services in North America are on track to hit $94 billion in 2026, according to a new forecast from Digital TV Research. That's almost double the $49 billion streaming video services brought in in 2020.

The United States will account for the lion's share of that revenue—$88 billion, up from $44 billion in 2020—while Canada will account for $5.4 billion. The U.S. remains the most mature OTT market in the world and will likely remain so, says Digital TV Research analyst Simon Murray, though he adds that the Indian market is growing quickly. (Mexico is covered in Digital TV Research's Latin American reports.)

SVOD services will remain the main revenue generators, accounting for $54 billion in 2026, but AVOD revenues will triple to $33 billion. Direct-to-own (DTO) and rentals account for the remainder. "The emergence of platforms such as Roku Channel and Pluto TV will push AVOD, plus the ad opportunities on newer hybrid platforms that have with ads and ad-free options," Murray says.

"The growth of SVOD dampens DTO and rental revenues somewhat. HBO Max's day-and-date releases this year will push these revenues up, although it is not clear that the same experiment will be repeated next year," Murray says.

The full report, "North America OTT TV & Video Forecasts," is available on Digital TV Research's website.