Last week, Youtube announced that it will expand its offering with a new advertising-supported VOD service in the United States. Nearly 400 episodes of TV shows will be available at launch. If Youtube was to expand its AVOD offering to the Nordics, it is bound to cause a substantial effect on consumer behavior – given Youtube’s strong position.

AVOD (Advertising Video on Demand) and hybrid AVOD/SVOD business models have increased in popularity recently. Lower than expected growth for SVOD in the first quarter of 2022 seem to have inspired the actors to try out new directions to growth. Youtube’s new launch is the most recent example, but far from the only one. Some key updates from the past few months include:

– Disney revealed that it will add a less expensive AVOD-tier to its existing SVOD price tier

– On our home turf, Cmore announced the launch of a hybrid service last fall and Discovery Plus in Denmark did the same this week

– Paramount announced it will release its AVOD/FAST (see next story) service Pluto TV through a partnership with NENT in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway in May 2022

– In the US, both Discovery+ and HBO Max offer ad-free and ad-supported tiers, and while it is unclear how those tiers would be priced in a combined platform, the company expects “big things” from the offering

For a deeper dive on AVOD (and Tiktok) from Mediavision: click here. 

After four consecutive years of Best Picture nominations for Netflix and two nominations this year, it was a close battle between frontrunners ‘The Power of the Dog’ (Netflix) and ‘CODA’ (Apple) at this year’s Oscars. Yet once again Netflix was defeated for the most prestigious prize, as Apple wrote history as the first streaming service to ever win Best Picture for ‘CODA’.

The Netflix movie did not go home empty-handed, as Jane Campion won Best Directing for ‘The Power of the Dog’. Campion is the third woman to win this prize and the only woman to win it twice. The movie is the streaming giant’s second win in the Best Directing category, after Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Roma’ in 2019.

Not only was ‘Dune’ the biggest in box office of 2021, but it also became the movie with the most Academy Awards wins in 2022. Many of its six award wins were for technical achievements, including Production Design, Cinematography, and Visual Effects.

No award wins for Scandinavians this year, despite multiple nominations. Both Danish ‘Flee’ and Norwegian ‘The Worst Person in the World’ were nominated for International Feature Film, which was won by the Japanese ‘Drive My Car’. Four Swedes were nominated for Makeup and Hairstyling – Love Larson and Eva von Bahr for ‘Dune’, and Göran Lundström and Anna Carin Lock for House of Gucci” – but ultimately the award went to the movie ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

Kun få danskere forventes at opsige Netflix efter prisstigning – Flatpanels

Netflix faces Nordic challenges – Broadband TV News

Swedish music subscriptions grew 7% in 2021 – High Resolution Audio

Så mycket dyrare har det blivit att strömma film och serier – SVT 

Tufft år för svenska ljudboksbranschen – tillväxttakten halverades – Dagens Industri 

Could TikTok spur growth of AVOD in the Nordics? – Senal News 

Bråket visar varför Spotify behöver Rogan – SVD

Poddarna – makten och pengarna – SR 

Därför kom Clubhouse-hysterin för ett år sedan – och därför dog den – SR

Hushållen tecknar fler abonnemang – rekordsiffror för S-SVOD under 2021 – Dagens Media