And the ad push is working.
Paul Verna, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, told Adweek the number of streamers making more than a billion in advertising will jump from four in 2023 to seven in 2024, with Pluto, Tubi and Peacock joining Hulu, YouTube, Roku and Amazon. Meanwhile, Disney and Netflix aren’t far behind.
Prepare to bundle up
In addition to ad dollars taking center stage, experts expect more consolidation, bundling and licensing in the upcoming year as streamers and networks reach across the aisle to fight fragmentation and reduce churn.
“What’s really interesting is some of the recent alliances or bundling between competitors in digital. That’s something that hadn’t happened much before,” Verna said. “Under pressure from consumer sentiment and consumer behavior, these rival streaming services are going to have to work together.”
Plus, even more disruption is on the way.
“In 2024, the blurring of the lines between linear, digital and streaming will lead to an active period of creative ways of bundling and re-bundling premium video, which will transform the TV industry,” said Marianne Gambelli, president of ad sales, marketing and brand partnerships at Fox Corporation.
The rise in AI, new measurement and targeted tech
With the rise in streaming comes an increase in TV tech, and 2024 will accelerate that trend for targeted marketing, predictive audience behavior and creative opportunities.
“In 2023, there were a lot of general conversations around AI,” Jon Steinlauf, chief U.S. advertising sales officer, Warner Bros. Discovery, said. “The focus in 2024 should be on actual use.”
Along with upgraded tech comes new measurement standardization and adoption as the industry continues to shift away from Nielsen as a de facto currency.
“Ad buyers and sellers in the TV advertising ecosystem are bracing for a sea change in measurement,” Verna said.
Everything is cable
With the caveat of the added capabilities that come with streaming, such as on-demand consumption and viewing across devices, the cable TV ad-supported paradigms of the past are the way of the future.
Or, as Proulx puts it, “What’s old is new again.”
