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PlutoTV, Roku Channel, and Tubi made up 5.7% of total TV viewing in May, per Nielsen, more than any individual broadcast network. Our take: With TV viewership increasingly fragmented, advertisers that abandon cable and broadband entirely could leave many consumers behind.

The Roku Channel has been the industry leader in recent years, but its long-term position is not guaranteed. The Roku Channel, Tubi, and Pluto TV are the current front-runners, but there has been significant churn. Pluto TV was the early leader as FAST emerged, but it has since fallen to a distant third.

Roku. Snap. Taboola and Qualtrics. Warner Bros. Discovery.

Amazon Ads and Roku unveiled an integration enabling Amazon's DSP to access Roku's logged-in audience. Amazon brings its retail data alongside Roku鈥檚 streaming audience, enabling brands to link viewing behavior to purchase intent鈥攁 true commerce-driven media model. Comcast also launched an integration with Mastercard, allowing purchase data to prove TV ad impact on sales lift.

Why it鈥檚 worth watching: Roku has been one of the more innovative CTV players pushing to make ads more prominent on connected devices. It pioneered the use of screensavers for ads in its Roku City to highlight streaming brands. Last year, it partnered with Instacart for shoppable on-screen TV ads.

Roku鈥檚 autoplay ads, which appear before the Roku TV menu, sparked similar initial user fallout. Our take: YouTube is boosting ad and media growth by becoming the home for both long-form and short-form video. Broadcasters are already on board鈥攕hort-form creators and advertisers will likely follow. It鈥檚 a warning shot across TikTok鈥檚 bow.

These changes also respond to a larger shift in the connected TV space, with platforms like Roku and Amazon embracing greater DSP interoperability. Room to grow:. US ad revenues for Netflix are projected to reach $2.15 billion in 2025, per our forecast. That鈥檚 up nearly 56% from 2024, and will climb to $3.12 billion by 2027.

Amazon鈥檚 total share of US CTV ad spending has already surpassed Roku, per our estimates. Why it matters: Amazon is proving its position as an advertising powerhouse, and the updates promise significant opportunities for brands to reach engaged streaming audiences at strategic points where they鈥檙e likely to take action.

As costs rise, consumer brands in retail, tech, and CPG may scale back marketing鈥攂ad news for platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Roku, which increasingly depend on advertising. Content spending will tighten. With billions committed to live sports rights, media companies may further deprioritize scripted programming in favor of lower-cost unscripted content, putting creative innovation at risk.

By 2026, nine streaming platforms鈥攊ncluding Roku, Netflix, and Amazon鈥攁re expected to have $1 billion+ CTV ad businesses, intensifying the need for innovation. Unlike competitors such as Roku, which has drawn user backlash for pre-home screen autoplay ads, Samsung is leaning into interactive, opt-in formats that have the potential to enhance viewer experience.

While The Roku Channel is included in the preceding chart, Roku generates ad revenues in other ways, including by selling inventory on behalf of streaming services included on its platform. But the data in this chart is limited to The Roku Channel.

Zooming out: Creative Canvas follows a broader trend: major CTV players like Roku and Comcast have launched similar self-serve offerings to attract smaller, social-first advertisers who prioritize engagement and lower-cost creative. This market expansion is producing results: NBCUniversal鈥檚 programmatic-enabled Olympics coverage in 2024 helped grow its advertiser base by 90%.

When we published our first US CTV ad spending forecast in 2019, just three services鈥擸ouTube, Roku, and Hulu鈥攁ccounted for more than 6 in 10 gross CTV ad dollars. By 2026, those services will account for about 4 in 10 gross US CTV ad dollars. YouTube, Roku, and Hulu continue to grow their ad revenues, but at a slower rate compared with the rest of the market.

Netflix saw a 16.8% increase in digital ad revenue in Q2 2024, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of growth, according to the company鈥檚 earnings.

Real-world example: Waterpik, Walmart Connect, and Roku. Using Walmart Connect audience data, Waterpik launched shoppable streaming ads on Roku which prompted users to click 鈥淥K鈥� on their remote to learn more about the product and add it to their cart.

Younger consumers are increasingly turning to these services, and FAST options like the Roku Channel, Pluto TV, and Tubi account for a higher share of US TV use (4.3%) than Peacock, Max, and Paramount+ combined (3.7%), per a Nielsen Gauge report, indicating these channels are gaining value.

CNN and Roku want to thrive in the FAST lane: Both are launching free ad-supported streaming channels to lure price-conscious consumers.

The biggest beneficiaries of CTV ad spending are YouTube, Amazon, and Roku, but Netflix will grow the fastest, with 55.9% YoY growth in ad spending in 2025. Social network ad spending continues to charge ahead. Although retail media is growing a little faster, social media ad spending will increase 12.8% YoY in 2025.

Subscription and ad-supported video-on-demand services like Netflix, Disney+, and Crave, as well as free ad-supported streaming TV channels like Pluto TV and Roku, have attracted substantial audiences among cord-cutters and younger age groups. Add the dominant YouTube to the list, and the menu only gets fuller. Podcasts and streaming are boosting digital listenership.

Viewers who choose advertising plans grew 16% between 2023 and 2024, and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services like Pluto and Roku are also climbing steadily, according to our forecast. The shift from linear TV to streaming is causing legacy media giants like Paramount, Warner Bros.

Samsung Ads remains a smaller player in the US FAST space with 24 million monthly viewers in 2025, far behind The Roku Channel (87 million) and Tubi (79.3 million), per our recently updated forecast. But global ambitions and data-powered performance may help close the gap.

Roku posts strong Q3 revenues growth, attributes to content, ads, and new TVs: ARPU drops as losses mount, but the company remains optimistic amid streaming challenges.

Roku Q2 revenues up: Budget-conscious consumers are flocking to its ad-supported streaming platform.

Nielsen鈥檚 Gauge previously found that FAST services like the Roku Channel, Tubi, and Pluto TV account for a higher share of US TV use (4.3%) than the combined usage of Paramount+, Peacock, and Max (3.7%), which all include advertisements for specific subscription tiers. This indicates that advertisers could find more value in FAST services than ad-supported subscription video-on-demand.

Per MediaPost, YouTube generates $0.18 per streaming hour in US ad revenues, behind Pluto TV but ahead of Tubi and The Roku Channel. Why it matters: Our data reinforces the bullish outlook. YouTube is projected to earn $40.03 billion in global ad revenues (gross) in 2025, a 759% increase from 2015.