The Walt Disney Company’s general entertainment service Hulu had the biggest share of advertising revenue during the third quarter (Q3), according to a leading industry research firm.
Hulu’s revenue grew 5 percent to $782 million during Q3, the research firm said, apparently citing a comparison of quarterly earnings reports from Wall Street-traded companies and other public sources.
Amazon’s Prime Video — which only recently began airing commercial breaks during TV shows and movies after defaulting Prime members to the ad-supported tier of the video service — had the highest overall Q3 ad revenue growth, grabbing $441 million during the quarter, up 230 percent.
Netflix was not too far behind Prime Video in revenue, collecting $429 million, an increase of 95 percent, while Peacock closely trailed Hulu in terms of overall revenue collected with an impressive $761 million earned during the period, up 114 percent.
Among free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) platforms, The Roku Channel earned the most money with $331 million (+22 percent) collected in Q3, followed by Paramount Global’s Pluto TV with $272 million (+18 percent). Fox Corporation’s Tubi rounded out the bunch with $255 million earned during Q3, up 19 percent.
The research firm estimated Disney will see the biggest ad revenue growth in 2024, effectuated by synergies across Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus. Disney’s revenue growth is expected to jump 261 percent to $531 million, up 261 percent. Prime Video is forecast to reach $2 billion in revenue by the end of 2024, an increase of 133 percent compared to 2023, while Netflix is expected to hit $1.6 billion in revenue, up 116 percent.
The report was published by MoffettNathanson last week, and picked up by news outlets that have courtesy subscriptions to MoffettNathanson’s research notes and archive. When asked by The Desk last week for information about how reporters can join the company’s media distribution list, MoffettNathanson co-founder Michael Nathanson said he personally objected to a previously-published story that included information from a research note on the advertising industry. The story used “too much” information from the research note, which the company considers to be proprietary, Nathanson said.
Despite repeated requests, Nathanson declined to provide clear guidance on what journalists may use from the company’s research notes, and how much information he considers to be “too much.” Nathnson affirmed he revokes access to research notes when reporters “cross the line” in using too much information, which he said happens about once every six months. Reporters at two national publication later told The Desk that they were given courtesy access to MoffettNathanson research notes, without restraint on what could be reported.
Nathanson agreed to activate a courtesy subscription to MoffettNathanson’s research, but instructed staff to closely monitor news reports from The Desk to ensure only a limited amount of information was cited from those reports. He declined to provide information about what was attributable and what was not. In the absence of clear guidance on what may be used, The Desk requested that our courtesy subscription be canceled, and the company complied with that request last week.
