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Amid dizzying policy unpredictability and a grab bag of unpleasant economic possibilities, precise ad spend forecasting is challenging. A scenarios-based approach can help clarify potential outcomes.

This is the Q1 2025 installment of our quarterly 鈥淎d Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.鈥�

This is the Q1 2025 installment of our quarterly 鈥淎d Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

The Roku Channel, Tubi, Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus, and a handful of others will collectively draw over 115 million US viewers this year. FAST platforms aren鈥檛 subject to subscription fatigue or pricing pressures, positioning them to capitalize on other services鈥� losses in the coming zero-sum time spent environment.

TV device-makers like Roku, LG, Samsung, and Vizio have FAST platforms with The Roku Channel, LG Channels, Samsung TV Plus, and WatchFree+. Amazon runs the FAST Freevee, and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment owns Crackle. We classify FAST as a subset of ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) streaming. FASTs represent the free side of streaming advertising.

Video ad spending continues to outpace overall digital ad spending and will power the fastest-growing ad-supported media.

Roku recently announced new ad formats like home screen video ads and branded animated cars that appear on its Roku City screensaver. This inventory will be exclusively available upfront, said Kristina Shepard, vice president, global advertising sales and partnerships at Roku. More upfront buying will occur programmatically.

Streaming services are aiming to simplify investments in CTV to encourage more small and mid-sized players to enter the space鈥�Roku rolled out its self-serve advertising platform in September, and more players are also investing in programmatic advertising.

Although there were rumors that it could seek to acquire Roku or another connected TV operating system creator, the company instead opted to create its own technology. What this means: The Trade Desk is facing competition from supply-side platforms that are beginning to offer competitive targeting data, which could threaten its market.

Walmart has also ventured into shoppable entertainment over the past few years, including with the debut of its first shoppable feature film, 鈥淛ingle Bell Love,鈥� on the Roku Channel last holiday season and a shoppable rom-com 鈥淎dd to Heart鈥� in 2023.

Ahead of CES, parent company Comcast announced a self-serve ad platform for small- to midsize businesses called Universal Ads that will be used by partners including Roku and Warner Bros. Discovery, positioning itself as a key intermediary.

We now expect retail media to account for a significantly larger share of CTV ad spending overall due to major new partnerships鈥攕uch as Roku and Walmart鈥檚鈥攁s well as Amazon Prime Video adding ads. US retail media ad spending will grow at a torrid pace. Retail media will be one of the largest, fastest-growing ad spending channels in the US through 2028.

Roku leads, but Freevee is growing the quickest. Most FAST services are available via any internet-connected screen, but Roku鈥檚 connected TV (CTV) leadership gives it an edge. Roku鈥檚 CTV devices and smart TV operating system are extremely popular and give users an immediate, frictionless way to watch The Roku Channel.

Advertisers and tech vendors look to capitalize on CTV鈥檚 growing importance in digital advertising.

This is the first installment of our quarterly 鈥淎d Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

But I think if you think about from the platform's perspective, you've got huge incumbents and then you've got companies that have not really been as active, like Roku for example, getting more into live sports with things like X Games.

But another way people spend more time watching YouTube on a TV than they spend watching Amazon Prime Video, The Roku Channel, Tubi, Peacock, Paramount Plus and Max combined. It's just a staggering amount of time people are spending on this platform.

Recent wins include Media Rating Council accreditation for streaming measurement and strategic partnerships with Amazon and Roku. While the TikTok partnership strengthens Nielsen's cross-platform capabilities, the company must continue innovating to justify its premium pricing and maintain market leadership.

By tapping into the lucrative CTV market, Walmart aims to compete with major players like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Roku. Vizio will help Walmart 鈥渂ring to market new and differentiated ways for advertisers to meaningfully connect with customers at scale and boost product discovery, helping brands achieve greater impact from their advertising investments with Walmart Connect,鈥� per a press release.