蘑菇AV

The news: Charter Spectrum is adding Max to its Spectrum TV Select cable package at no additional cost in a renewed carriage deal with Warner Bros. Discovery. This early renewal, more than a year before the deadline, contrasts markedly with last year鈥檚 drawn-out carriage fee battle with Disney.

Most inventory is delivered against premium video content from broadcast TV, cable, and streaming studios.

Within Nielsen鈥檚 TV household universe, 18.125 million are OTA households, and an additional 4.625 million are cable and satellite TV homes that also have OTA-capable TV sets. In total, 22.750 million households access TV content through an OTA antenna鈥攁 device that falls outside the scope of big data collection.

Our take: CTV is catching up to traditional TV in terms of where consumers are spending time, per our forecasts. Plus, a Roku survey from last year found that primary care doctors (a key audience for pharma advertisers) are increasingly cutting the cable cord in favor of streaming TV. 3. Search. Some 97% of marketers will either increase (51%) or keep (46%) their search ad spending.

Consumers today have access to a lifetime鈥檚 worth of TV content across a wide range of sources. On the surface, the fragmented nature of where content comes from can be challenging for media planning, but with a strong focus on time spent, it doesn鈥檛 have to be.

The way people watch TV is changing. So are the ways brands advertise on TV. Connected TV has seen 鈥渕onumental progress in just a handful of years,鈥� said our analyst Ross Benes. But that鈥檚 not the full story. Here are key TV behaviors and ad trends to watch in the new year.

During a period when Starz was not running a sale, the cable and streaming TV network introduced a 鈥渟pin the wheel鈥� ad that based its value proposition on Starz鈥檚 original content. The 鈥淲heel of Starz鈥� page got consumers excited about Starz鈥檚 lineup, more so than if they had clicked an ad to subscribe and save.

Rx advertising surges on linear TV: We examine the top TV programs for drug ads and explore why pharma marketers are still investing in linear TV amid declining viewership.

That could benefit larger players like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which offer more flexible, cost-effective alternatives to traditional cable and stand to gain from the continued migration away from linear (a trend likely to accelerate in the current macroeconomic climate).

Over 90% of respondents reported watching live TV in H1 2023. High TV penetration in the US is tied to a broad array of options including over-the-air network TV and cable channels that specialize in news, sports, and daytime or primetime entertainment. Almost all (99.1%) of respondents watched TV in any form in H1 2023.

Sunday Ticket propels YouTube TV to 48% growth: The pay TV service has seen subscriptions jump significantly since it acquired the costly streaming rights.

The NFL鈥檚 shift to streaming reflects a broader move away from traditional cable, yet latency issues could hinder real-time engagement and sports betting. The final word: Super Bowl LIX showcased the changing nature of live sports broadcasting, advertising, and viewership habits.

This should allow the company to create a variety of unscripted series that employ livestreaming, similar to TV networks airing live events for popular competition shows like 鈥淒ancing with the Stars鈥� and 鈥淎merican Idol.鈥�.

Traditional TV offshoots: Virtual cable services (vMVPDs), like YouTube TV, Sling TV, and Hulu with Live TV, sell streaming inventory. TV Everywhere鈥攕treaming apps for traditional TV networks that require authenticated logins鈥攊s another outlet where digitally served ads can appear against live TV. What isn鈥檛 considered CTV?

Why it matters: While a merger may provide temporary relief, it likely won鈥檛 solve the fundamental challenges facing satellite TV providers as cord-cutting accelerates. Unlike cable companies, satellite providers can鈥檛 easily diversify into other services like internet access. Listen to the full episodes (Part One, Part Two). This was originally featured in the 蘑菇AV Daily newsletter.

Primary care doctors are switching from cable to streaming TV services, per a May 2023 survey from Roku. Those doctors are two times more likely than physician cable subscribers to restrict in-office visits from pharma reps. They鈥檙e also less aware of pharma brands than are doctors who watch linear TV. Mobile ad spending will dominate, but barely.

Pay TV includes subscriptions to cable, satellite, and IPTV services. IPTV is eating into traditional pay TV. Cable and satellite services (from the likes of Rogers, Bell Media, Cogeco and Shaw) will account for 61.9% of total pay TV households this year, but that share will shrink each year.

Digital pay TV services (sometimes called vMVPDs) like YouTube TV offer an experience similar to cable, where users have access to a library of live TV channels. The joint sports offering between ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox would also combine multiple offerings. These platforms need to find other ways to stand out beyond exclusivity. Look for streamers that offer the best first-party data.

The cable bundle is dead. There鈥檚 no turning back the tide of cord cutting. The traditional cable, satellite, and telco pay TV bundle continues to lose ground to streamers, and the trend is irreversible. The resolution of the Disney-Spectrum dispute was only a temporary respite. The existential questions that the carriage scuffle brought up are still latent.

CNN said Originals, joining current FAST offerings CNN Headlines and CNN Fast, is available on Amazon Prime Video, Freevee, Fire TV, and Plex. Roku Sports Channel will be accessible on Roku devices, Fire TVs, and Samsung and Google TVs.

Precise TV.

College football is also seeing a boost across broadcast and cable networks, with 30-second spots 12% more expensive this year. As Americans prepare for their traditional Thanksgiving football festivities, advertisers are making history with unprecedented investments in holiday sports programming.

Political impact: The strong spending growth for political advertising has companies ranging from TV networks to streaming services clamoring for a larger share, but it鈥檚 local TV that will reap the majority of the profits in 2024.

Advertisers are fleeing traditional TV far more quickly than viewers are. TV will claim just 17.3% of all US ad spending this year, despite US adults still spending almost a quarter of their daily media time with old-fashioned cable, satellite, and broadcast TV services.

A better solution would be scaling back on other ventures, such as Meta鈥檚 losing Reality Labs division and undersea cable plans. Our take: Brands should optimize local supply chains and explore service-based models when applicable to maintain profitability amid tariff disruptions. Meanwhile, consumers can turn to platforms that sell US-based inventory to manage price hikes.