SpotX: OTT video ad spend up 18-fold in 2017

The amount of advertising dollars spent on over-the-top (OTT) video inventory grew nearly 18-fold year-on-year in October, according to stats from RTL-owned video ad marketplace SpotX.

The company’s data revealed that the portion of overall ad budgets spent with OTT inventory owners increased from 8% in October 2016 to over 26% of total spend for October 2017.

SpotX said it expects OTT to account for around 30% of video ad spend by the end of 2017 as “the holiday ad spend push continues”.

“We’ve seen DSP [demand-side platform] partners increasing their focus on OTT in response to a shift in consumption habits,” said Kelly McMahon, vice-president of global demand operations at SpotX.

“By making addressable OTT inventory available to buyers through their platforms, they’re placing themselves ahead of the curve in terms of innovation and enabling advertisers to reach audiences across multiple screens at scale.”

SpotX said the figures illustrate “explosive growth” in global over-the-top (OTT) video advertising spend across its platform.

It defines the OTT video category as broadcast-quality inventory from TV networks, multichannel video programming distributors and other live, linear and video-on-demand streaming services delivered via connected TV devices as well as desktop and mobile screens.