Tubi streamed 3.6 billion hours in 2021, a 40% increase over 2020, with 56% of its viewers unreachable by advertisers through linear TV and 27% of them unreachable through other free AVOD services. 71% of Tubi’s viewers don’t subscribe to a pay-TV services. Tubi’s median viewer age is 39 years old, 16 years younger than non-streamers, with 2 out of 3 viewers age 18-54 years old.

All of the data is from Tubi’s newly released report, “The Stream: 2022 Audience Insights for Brands” which explains key trends in consumer behavior with streaming and the impact that ad-supported streaming is having. The report draws research from multiple third-party sources, proprietary Tubi data and results of a survey of 6,000+ consumers fielded by MarketCast. The report highlights the value of AVOD for advertisers and how it complements linear TV.

Based on MRI-Simmons research, Tubi forecasts that the audience for free streaming will exceed the audience for SVOD in early 2022. This is because AVOD grew by 16% in 2021 vs. SVOD by 8%, narrowing the current audience gap between the two to just 5%. Tubi sees devices, cord-cutting, subscription fatigue and expanding broadband access as all contributing to AVOD’s growth.

Tubi notes that free AVOD viewership is growing among educated and higher-income consumers, partly driven by subscription fatigue. The fastest growing segment in 2021 was 35+ year olds, which now account for 61% of Tubi’s users. Another fast growing segment for Tubi was households with incomes over $150K per year, which now account for 20% of Tubi’s users.

The report observes that “incremental reach has become streaming’s slogan, and rightly so.” Zeroing in on younger viewers, almost two-thirds of Tubi streamers 18-34 years old don’t have a pay-TV subscription. Yet TV content is still important, with over 80% of Tubi streamers watching traditional TV content.

Within AVOD specifically, beyond the 27% overall who aren’t reached with another AVOD service, 78% Tubi users aren’t on Peacock, 68% aren’t on The Roku Channel and 50% aren’t on Pluto. However, 71% subscribe to Netflix - but they’re not reachable there because Netflix is ad-free.

Still, Tubi found a high lack of familiarity was its biggest barrier to trial currently. Among users, ease of use and value were the most-cited reasons for using free AVOD. Original content was also high on the list of consumers’ wants. The report notes that while a large library of recognizable TV shows and movies is important, original provide a key source of value as the AVOD market gets more competitive.

(Tubi executives have spoken at VideoNuze’s last two virtual events, here and here, for more.)

There is a ton of other interesting data in the report, which is available for complimentary download.