Expect more ads coming to Netflix, Amazon, and Disney+
Key Points
- Advertising will rise from 19.4% to 22.6% of global streaming revenue by 2030, PwC forecasts
- Streaming ad revenue growing 9.4% a year against 6.1% for the market overall
- Netflix ad revenue more than doubled to over $1.5 billion in 2025
- Subscription fatigue emerging in Australia, Spain and South Korea
- Vodafone TV bundles the ad-supported tiers of Netflix and HBO Max by default
Advertising will account for 22.6% of global streaming revenue by 2030, up from 19.4% today, as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ push viewers towards cheaper ad-supported plans.
The forecast comes from consultancy PwC’s Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2026–30, which covers 12 industry segments across 53 territories. The firm said streaming advertising will grow at 9.4% a year through 2030, outpacing the wider streaming market.
Total over-the-top revenue, which includes subscriptions and advertising, rose 13.9% in 2025 to $226.6 billion from $199 billion the year before. PwC said growth will slow to 6.1% a year from here, taking the market to $304 billion in 2030.
Consumers in maturing streaming markets, including the UK, Australia, Spain and South Korea have started showing what the firm called subscription fatigue. It said the industry may be reaching the limit of how many monthly subscriptions households will pay for.
Netflix reported that its advertising revenue more than doubled in 2025 to over $1.5 billion. Amazon’s total advertising business, which includes Prime Video, reached $68 billion in the same year, up from more than $50 billion in 2024.
PwC said Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Spotify and Netflix have all built successful advertising businesses as subscription growth has slowed. Advertisers favour connected TV and shoppable video formats because they combine digital reach with clearer links to actual purchases.
Video will account for 27% of all internet advertising revenue by 2030, up from around 19% in 2021. Global advertising spend across all media passed $1 trillion for the first time in 2025 and will reach $1.4 trillion by 2030.
The ad-supported tiers are already becoming the default in telecoms bundles. Vodafone TV, announced on Thursday (3 September) and launching in October, includes Netflix Standard with Ads and HBO Max Standard with Ads, with customers paying extra through Vodafone’s Subscription+ platform to remove the adverts.
PwC said streaming platforms will respond to slowing subscription growth with bigger bundles that combine television, films, games, music, sport and user-generated content in a single service.
The firm expects further consolidation among streamers as they seek scale to reduce churn and raise revenue per user.
