蘑菇AV

Catch up on the big events and trends shaping how advertisers measure linear and connected TV advertising.

NBCU will have to pay extra to keep the Macy鈥檚 parade: The retailer wants $60 million for a new Thanksgiving Day broadcast contract.

They argue that 鈥渃lick to cancel鈥� is costly and unnecessary, setting up a showdown over consumer protections and industry compliance.

Currently, less than half of US households subscribe to traditional pay TV, while the number of CTV households has reached 113.1 million (85.3% of the population). In fact, by 2024, eMarketer expects CTV households in the US to more than double traditional pay TV households. Viewers are also spending more time with CTV than ever before.

The news: Digital pay TV service Fubo introduced a new connected TV ad format with Walmart as its first partner, offering brands an enhanced level of visibility. The format, called 鈥淭he Triple Play,鈥� gives an advertiser a prominent, three-row placement on Fubo鈥檚 homescreen, including QR codes to make ads shoppable and tiles for branded content.

In an effort dubbed 鈥淣o Locals,鈥� DirecTV is attempting to lower the cost of pay TV by giving consumers a discount if they remove local, over-the-air (OTA) TV stations from their package. Consumers who take advantage of the offer will see up to $140 in savings yearly, per DirecTV. The argument: Pay TV viewership is declining.

Pay TV: Sometimes called cable TV, pay TV refers to TV bundles and digital live TV services. In 2024, 157.1 million people will be pay TV viewers, per our February 2024 forecast. These are divided between traditional and digital pay TV viewers.

US OTT subscription revenues (including digital pay TV services such as YouTube TV and Sling TV) are on track to overtake traditional pay TV subscription revenues in 2025 for the first time, per our forecast. Traditional pay TV subscription revenues will continue to decline through the end of our forecast period in 2027.

Pay TV will give way to streaming as cord-cutting accelerates. Pay TV is losing viewers to streaming services in Latin America, but it鈥檚 not doom and gloom鈥攆or now. In certain countries, consumers still consider paid streaming services to be complementary to their pay TV subscription. Brazil is shedding pay TV viewers at an alarming rate.

The Trade Desk unveils a CTV operating system: The move thrusts the DSP provider into direct competition with leading CTV device manufacturers.

By the end of 2027, US households without any form of pay TV will outnumber those with some form of pay TV. In this comparison, pay TV includes both traditional pay TV and digitally delivered services known in industry parlance as virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs). The revolution will be connected.

Trump win could fuel conservative media growth: Fox News likely to thrive, while creators reshape the digital narrative with direct-to-audience engagement.

Comcast looks to free streaming biz from linear鈥檚 decline: The company is separating cable and digital assets in a move that others will mimic.

While live sports streaming won鈥檛 alleviate this issue, digital pay TV allows advertisers to measure how their ads perform across channels. The platforms that can provide the best measurement and attribution, whether on their own or with partners, will rise to the top of the live sports streaming playing field. Approach live sports streaming with a full-funnel strategy.

This year, it will finally happen: Non-pay TV households will outnumber pay TV households by about 5 million. But the number of virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPD) households tells a different story.

Methodology: Estimates are based on the analysis of survey and web traffic data from research firms and regulatory agencies, sales projections, historical trends, company-specific data, reported subscriber numbers of major pay TV providers, and demographic and socioeconomic factors.

Read the full report, US OTT and Pay TV Viewership Forecast 2024.

After Elon Musk took over Twitter and rebranded the platform to X, worldwide ad revenues were slashed in half, from $4.14 billion the year Musk took over in 2022 to $2.00 billion in 2023. 蘑菇AV forecasts those declines to continue through 2026, the end of our forecast period. But the reelection of Musk鈥檚 close ally, President Donald Trump, could change how some marketers think about the platform.

Just under one-third (33.1%) of US consumers cut the cord in 2022, leading to the decline of legacy pay TV companies and prompting streaming brands like Roku and Fubo to entice consumers seeking lower-cost alternatives. That same cord-cutting trend is responsible in part for making CTV the fastest-growing digital ad format in the US, increasing 21.2% to $25.09 billion in 2023, per our new forecast.

Digital pay TV, however, which includes services such as YouTube TV and Sling TV, is slowing down the trend, but only slightly. Digital pay TV is drawing fewer cord-cutters than it did in previous years now that providers have raised prices to align with linear TV subscription rates. 3. Five streaming services will exceed $1 billion in ad sales.

Max adds 7.2 million global subscribers in Q3: International expansion and ad revenue gains boost WBD鈥檚 position in the streaming race.

The company signed a $1 billion yearly deal with the NFL to host Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV, its pay TV service. The bet has been successful so far: Despite a steep investment, YouTube TV subscriptions jumped 50% year over year thanks to Sunday Ticket, posing a major disruption to the traditional pay TV business.

The US pay TV population鈥攖hose who are reachable through traditional cable, satellite, or telecom and fiber options鈥攈as dwindled to about 60% of its 2013 peak size, per our forecast. Non-pay TV viewers will for the first time outnumber pay TV viewers in 2023. As ad-supported video-on-demand continues to proliferate, measurement won鈥檛 get easier.

In October 2022, the UK鈥檚 largest satellite pay TV provider launched its IP-delivered TV alternative, Sky Stream. It enables users to access content via a broadband-connected box鈥攐r via its proprietary Sky Glass TV sets鈥攔ather than relying on a traditional satellite dish. YouTube Primetime Channels come to the UK.