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Streaming services are leaning more on advertising than they used to, resulting in increased overall ad spending but lower ad prices.

TV networks and streaming services are becoming more selective about producing new content. As a result, reruns of licensed shows and streamed live sports will become more important to marketers.

The news: Most mobile apps fail to make $1,000 in monthly revenues within their first two years, placing pressure on developers to acquire and keep paid subscribers. The window of time to capture a paying user is tight: 82% of subscription trials start the same day a user installs an app, per RevenueCat鈥檚 2025 State of Subscription Apps report.

Latin America鈥檚 digital video audience will be the second largest in the world this year. As greater adoption of paid and ad-supported streaming services takes hold, the region will remain a key market for new user growth on the international stage. Here are our latest forecasts.

An influx of news personalities and social creators have joined Substack鈥檚 user base, helping to boost the platform to 5 million paid subscribers, up from 3 million at this time last year. Substack is also investing in visual content鈥攊t launched a scrollable video feed, capitalizing on interest in short-form video and positioning itself as (another) TikTok alternative.

2025 is a crucial year for Netflix鈥檚 future: The streaming leader鈥檚 first sports rights deal begins in days, teeing up future opportunities.

The company saw a 75% quarter-over-quarter increase in subscribers to its Premium Pages for small and midsize businesses. LinkedIn鈥檚 ad revenues are on a longer-term upward trend. Per our forecast, global ad revenues are expected to grow from $8.06 billion in 2025 to $9.57 billion by 2027.

In addition, podcasters can earn a scaling payment based on ad-free views from Premium subscribers.

CNN isn鈥檛 done with streaming: In a memo announcing layoffs, CEO Mark Thompson said a standalone streaming service is coming.

AI search, which started testing in April, is available to Premium subscribers who opt in. YouTube is also expanding access to a conversational chatbot AI tool to some non-Premium users. It launched in late 2023 for Premium users.

Sustaining revenue gains in 2025 could require adding more engaging and personalized features to keep subscribers around for any future price hikes.

Netflix's successful password-sharing crackdown brought in many new subscribers, but these new subscribers spend less time with the service than established users. "Those new subscribers don't seem to be watching as much Netflix as the old subscribers did," Cramer-Flood explains.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss how Spotify reached sustained profitability, what a 鈥渄eluxe鈥� tier might look like, and where the audio streaming giant goes from here. Tune in to the discussion with host Marcus Johnson and analyst Daniel Konstantinovic.

Use this chart: Publishers can use this chart to understand what audiences care about when it comes to news content鈥攁nd over-reliance on AI could lead to a subscriber hit. Related 蘑菇AV reports:. Generative AI for Media Sellers (蘑菇AV subscription required). Generative AI Trends to Watch in 2025 (蘑菇AV subscription required).

On the money side, the audio streaming giant made about $3.3 billion in Q4. Growth was up 18%. That is not quite as good than the previous 24%, but still pretty good. Most of the company's revenue, 85% comes from paid subscribers. Even though paid subscribers are a smaller share, they make up more of the money. 85% of the dollars coming from paid subscribers. That grew at 18% versus 22 last year.

CPMs tend to be higher when ad loads are low, and Netflix runs fewer ads per hour than other streaming services. Ad-supported Netflix viewers saw 3.5 ads per hour in Q4 2023, while all streaming services combined averaged 13.1 ads per hour, according to MediaRadar. As long as ad loads remain low, prices will remain relatively high.

On today鈥檚 podcast episode, we discuss the next waves to hit the streaming world: which platform will emerge as the streaming hub, how will 鈥渃ontent tiers鈥� change viewer behavior and subscriptions, and can streaming maintain sizeable enough audiences for awards shows and Presidential debates? Tune in to the conversation with Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, our Senior Editor Daniel Konstantinovic, and Vice President Paul Verna. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

As the leading audio streaming service, Spotify boasts more than 246 million premium subscribers鈥攁ll users who don鈥檛 see ads. But its monthly active ad-supported users outnumber premium users by nearly 150 million. Our take: Several years ago, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek called podcasting a 鈥�$20 billion opportunity.鈥� With its ad exchange launch, it is moving toward making that a reality.

Story two, the US sheds nearly 6 million pay TV subscribers in 2022, notes a recent Advanced TV article. It cites findings from Leichtman Research Group, which show the largest pay TV providers in the US, representing over 90% of the market, lost nearly 6 million net video subscribers, basically cable folks, in 2022. That's 1 million more than the near 5 million lost the year before.

In 2022, Netflix faced net subscriber losses for the first time in the modern streaming era. It spent the next year rolling out a lower-cost ad tier and abolishing password-sharing. These pivots led to subscriber growth, but at the expense of total viewership. Now that the dust has settled and the ad tier experiment is working, we expect a rebound for the sub OTT leader this year (5.1% viewer growth).

In addition, the gaming giant incorporated rewind abilities and CRT control as an expansion pack for paid Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. Playing the field: The Switch 2鈥檚 GameChat social gaming features could tap into a key user interest, encouraging gamers to upgrade their console and positioning the device as a must-have for social play.

Those costs scale with the growth of Max, even though the tier only made up 5% of paid subscribers at the end of 2024. Still, the company is focused on improving the user experience rather than reducing costs immediately. 鈥淲e're prioritizing using the latest AI models to deliver a high-quality experience.

Politics will buoy linear TV ad spending this year, but allocations will continue to shift toward streaming options that keep gaining ad-supported viewers.

This year's SAG Awards, to be held on February 26, will be streamed on Netflix's YouTube channel; next year, it will be available to subscribers on the streaming platform itself. Netflix is taking over the rights to the awards ceremony, which officially parted ways with its broadcasters, cable networks TNT and TBS, last May.