Posts for 'Advertising'

SVOD subscriber additions are cooling, and even as the industry leans into engagement metrics, growth still drives valuations.

That's the setup for our conversation with Rahul Patel, Principal Analyst at Ampere Analysis in London, who joins us exclusively on Inside the Stream for the first time to dig into his new report on why global SVOD services might launch free, ad-supported tiers (note, not necessarily a conventional FAST service per se).

Rahul walks us through why streamers have a history of successful "big swings" - original content, password-sharing crackdowns, lower-priced hybrid ad-supported models - and where free tiers fit. He breaks down the motivations and benefits, the risks, and his predictions for which geographies are most likely to see this happen and when.

Colin and I agree free tiers are one of the biggest areas of untapped potential for SVODs, and we expect to see real movement here soon.

Listen on for this engaging interview (32 minutes, 38 seconds)

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There were a lot of new streaming dynamics that unfolded this summer, including YouTube’s growing dominance and budding rivalry with Netflix, two movies from YouTube creators that have generated a combined $900 million+ at the box office, Comcast splitting off NBCUniversal, Fox acquiring Roku, sports migrating to streaming, the ongoing Paramount-WBD saga and much more. 

We discuss the top stories we covered over the summer and what’s on tap for a busy Fall. 

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The World Cup’s success flowed through to streaming, with Fox One adding 2.8 million subscribers in June and Peacock adding 2 million in Q2. Peacock also turned its first profit in Q2, of $189 million, though management warned results will vary by quarter. 

YouTube also benefited, with over 1.7 billion unique viewers globally watching World Cup related video. That helped drive ad revenue to $11.1 billion in Q2, up 13% year-over-year. YouTube is also pursuing a range of ad enhancements and AI features that will grow engagement and ad revenue going forward.  

Listen on to learn more! (29 minutes, 52 seconds)

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This week we discuss new research from Omdia, Hub and Antenna, all of which underscores the growing importance of advertising for streaming, across FASTs and premium SVOD. 

Omdia forecasts global CTV ad revenue will increase to $81 billion in 2030, up from $44 billion in 2025, with Google, Amazon and Netflix accounting for nearly half the total. Hub said 55% of TV viewers have used at least one FAST service, with free viewing being the biggest draw. And Antenna found, among other things, 110 million ad-supported premium SVOD subscriptions at the end of Q1 ’26, up from 53 million two years ago.  
    
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YouTube’s Q1 ad revenue approached $10 billion, up 11% vs. last year and around 25% vs. two years ago. YouTube said that both direct response and brand advertising were strong. However, subscriptions were the fastest growing part of the business, with YouTube Premium and Music performing best, recording their largest increase in non-trial subscribers. 

Meanwhile Antenna estimates that Roku’s Howdy has hit 1 million subscribers less than one year following its launch. At $2.99 per month Howdy is a relatively low cost SVOD service that appears to have high stickiness. The gains speak to Roku's promotional clout. Roku also reported a strong Q1 for ad revenue. 
    
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Netflix has raised its prices again, with its ad-supported plan increasing by one dollar per month and its ad-free plans going up by two dollars. Netflix has the biggest price gap between ad-supported and ad-free plans, suggesting the company is guiding subscribers toward the former. 

Related to price increases, we also discuss how the monthly cost of the top six SVOD services compares to several years ago. We consider this in the context of Ampere’s forecast showing the global SVOD industry will top $200 billion in revenue in 2030. 

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Advertising continues to gain greater acceptance in the streaming era according to data from Hub. There’s been a gradual decline in the percentage of viewers who can’t tolerate ads from 17% in June ’21 to 12% in December ’25. In addition, 32% of viewers say they’d pay $4-5 more per month to go ad-free vs. 40% four years ago. 63% of 18-34 viewers strongly or somewhat agree that they don’t mind watching TV with ads as much as they used to. 

Elsewhere, Nielsen data shows sports continuing to lead in ad-supported viewing and a report from Tubi shows that for many, creator content is now on a par with premium TV. We discuss all the data.

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Fubo’s deal with Disney has closed and during this week’s earnings call Fubo outlined the path forward. We discuss the four areas of benefit which were identified and what the future might look like. 

Then we explore Netflix’s new Monthly Active Viewers metric, which is defined as those who watched at least one minute of ads on Netflix per month, multiplied by Netflix’s estimated average number of people in a household. Netflix said it now has 190 million MAVs globally. We explore whether this a valuable metric or not. Last, we dig into new data from Gracenote which shows FAST growth and viewers’ frustrations. 

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First up this week, Fox reported that Tubi turned profitable for the first time this past quarter, with revenue up 27% and view time up 18%. Tubi has been a major ad-supported streaming success story.  

Speaking of success stories, next we discuss YouTube, which keeps growing. Alphabet reported that YouTube’s ad revenue in Q3 was $10.3 billion, up 15% vs. the prior year. Shorts is a particular highlight for the company, which separately announced voluntary buyouts this week. 

On the flip side, we discuss how Peacock’s subscribers have been stuck at 41 million for the past 3 quarters. In fact they’re up just 7 million since the end of Q1 ’24. While losses have declined, the $2.5 billion per year NBA rights deal is going to weigh on future profitability. And as we discuss, it’s not clear how many longer term subscribers the NBA games will drive.  

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On the last podcast we did a deep dive interview with The Trade Desk’s SVP of Ventura TV OS Matthew Henick. Because we both believe this initiative has real potential to impact the CTV/streaming industry, this week we’re circling back to share our key takeaways from the interview.

At a high level, we agree with Matthew’s situation analysis of the TV OS market and the pain points for all constituents (TV OEMs and retailers, advertisers, streaming service providers and viewers). We also agree with The Trade Desk’s initial focus on TV OEMs and retailers.

However, we observe these are challenging deals to get done given entrenched TV operating systems and inertia, company politics and all-too-often hesitation to adopt new technology, irrespective of its potential superiority to incumbents. 

Nonetheless Ventura offers key competitive advantages, and the pain points appear to be getting more acute, thereby enhancing Ventura’s opportunity. We also discuss the advertiser, streaming service provider and viewer benefits. Add to all this The Trade Desk’s successful track record of creating software at scale and its extensive industry relationships and Colin and I agree it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch Ventura develop. 

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First up this week, YouTube continued its strong ad revenue growth in Q2 2025, with revenue rising 13% to $9.8 billion, ahead of its forecast. There’s plenty of growth still ahead as Shorts gain traction, advertisers tap conversion opportunities and AI permeates both content and monetization. 

Meanwhile Samsung signed a number of creators to put original content on its Samsung TV Plus FAST service. But as we discuss, there seems to be a looming decision for creators whether they should simply focus on their YouTube channels as YouTube becomes increasingly dominant on TV screens. 

Last but not least, we dig into the challenges that both HGTV and Peacock are experiencing. 

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This week we’re pleased to share our interview with Roku’s Senior Director, Global Ad Platform Partnerships and Business Development Miles Fisher. We do a deep dive into Roku’s recently announced partnership with Amazon Ads, which appears to be a potentially significant milestone in CTV realizing its ultimate potential as a full funnel medium.

As Miles explains, key to the partnership’s opportunity is the scale that both companies bring; Roku has 125 million logged in viewers per day on its devices, while Amazon has massive Prime program as well as other user data. Advertisers will be able to tap this impressive scale to target specific viewers with tangible performance outcomes. Roku and Amazon first-party data will be integrated through a custom identity resolution service.   

Roku has been focused on driving CTV to become a performance medium for a while, including programmatic (see panel with Roku and Walmart executives at VideoNuze’s June ’23 CTV Ad Summit). Miles said the companies have conducted early tests of the integration with positive tests. This is a partnership is definitely one to keep an eye on.

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We’re pleased to interview Vevo’s EVP, Global Sales Rob Christensen this week on Inside the Stream. Rob dives into the details of Vevo Evolve, the company’s new data-driven ad platform. Rob describes its advanced targeting, optimization and measurement capabilities. He also shares how Vevo’s music videos are succeeding across mobile, desktop and connected TV platforms. Looking ahead, Rob also explains how AI will play a big role in Vevo’s future.

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Last Tuesday was VideoNuze’s CTV x AI virtual conference, bringing together 18 speakers across 5 sessions. On today’s podcast we highlight the top takeaways from the conference from the consumer, advertiser and content provider perspectives. All of the session videos are available for on-demand viewing.

It is still early days for understanding the eventual impact of AI on CTV, but the speakers provided an array of insights of what’s happening already, and what’s likely in the future.

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Last Tuesday was VideoNuze’s CTV x AI PREVIEW: 2025 virtual which featured 18 senior executives on 5 sessions in 1 high-impact afternoon.

 Below are links to each of the sessions along with descriptions of each session and its speakers.


[VIDEO] Understanding Consumers’ Experience with AI and Entertainment

[VIDEO] Exploring How AI is Influencing CTV’s Effectiveness

[VIDEO] AI’s Capabilities Bring Benefits to CTV

[VIDEO] Interview with Paramount Global’s EVP, CTO and Head of Multiplatform Operations Phil Wiser

[VIDEO] How CTV and AI are Creating Breakthrough Experiences

Many thanks to our 3 generous partners FreeWheel, Mediaocean and Wurl!

Enjoy!

The following video was streamed at VideoNuze’s CTV x AI PREVIEW: 2025 virtual on February 25, 2025.

[VIDEO] Understanding Consumers’ Experience with AI and Entertainment
 
New research on consumers’ awareness and experience with AI and entertainment. Plus insights about CTV, advertising and viewership trends.

Jon Giegengack – Founder and Principal, Hub Entertainment Research

The following video was streamed at VideoNuze’s CTV x AI PREVIEW: 2025 virtual on February 25, 2025.

[VIDEO] Exploring How AI is Influencing CTV’s Effectiveness
Learn how AI is influencing CTV advertising’s effectiveness, including audience targeting, planning, optimization and measurement. What are the current opportunities and the long-term potential for AI to drive incremental value in CTV for both advertisers and streaming services?

• Bob Bress – VP, Head of Data Science, FreeWheel
• Brad Epperson – AWS WW Business Development Lead for Monetization (Media, Entertainment, Games and Sports)
• Jordan Greene – Co-founder and Chief Media Officer, Alpha Precision Media
• David Nyurenberg – Director, Digital Video Product Development & Innovation, Rain the Growth agency
• Jason Wiese – EVP, Strategic Insights and Measurement, VAB (moderator)

The following video was streamed at VideoNuze’s CTV x AI PREVIEW: 2025 virtual on February 25, 2025.

[VIDEO] AI’s Capabilities Bring Benefits to CTV
How is AI being implemented to benefit the CTV marketplace and what might be expected going forward? What are the new capabilities AI is enabling that add meaningful value to CTV?
 

• Gerry D'Angelo - Senior Advisor, Marketing & Sales, McKinsey & Company
• Asaf Greiner – GM, Protected by Mediaocean 
• Natasha Potashnik – Head of Data, Research & Measurement, Vevo
• Kevin Weigand - VP, Partnerships, Video & Audio, dentsu Media US Investment Solutions
• Colin Dixon - Founder and Chief Analyst, nScreenMedia (moderator)