After working on the basis of the premise that as TV viewing shifts from linear to streaming ad revenues are likely to follow, research from TVREV has revealed that free, ad-supported TV (FAST) services will increase their share of TV ad spend from a projected 17% in 2023 to 35% by 2025.
The FASTs Are The New Cable, Part 2: Advertising study was based on conversations between TVREV and dozens of key executives in the media industry and the analyst noted that one of the more universal comments it heard was a fear that dollars would not follow eyeballs, given how difficult it was to buy advertising on streaming, or to buy advertising on streaming across multiple platforms.
This fear seems to be based in a number of different projections, most notably one made by the IAB in June 2022, which suggested that while connected TV would account for 36% of time spent on video in 2022, it would only account for 18% of video ad dollars. TVREV stressed that such stats included social and other web video. Similarly, it cited recent Nielsen The Gauge data showing that in the past two quarters streaming now surpasses both cable and broadcast in terms of hours watched. TVREV says this stat has often been misinterpreted as implying that streaming now surpasses the combined total of both cable and broadcast, which is not the case.
The analyst’s own figures calculated that subscription services with ad tiers will likely increase their share of TV ad spend from 13% in 2023 to 25% by 2025. Broadcast TV’s share of ad spend will fall from 23% in 2023 to 15% by 2025 and able TV’s ad spend share will also decrease from 47% in 2023 to 25% by 2025.
However, TVREV warned of a lack of standardisation as the biggest issue the market believes is facing FAST advertising right now. This is an issue that the analyst said impacts just about every aspect of the streaming ecosystem, from planning to measurement to transparency to privacy. This is partly because the whole ecosystem is so new, and partly because the different parties – that is buyers, sellers and middlemen - rarely attempt to work together.
This fear seems to be based in a number of different projections, most notably one made by the IAB in June 2022, which suggested that while connected TV would account for 36% of time spent on video in 2022, it would only account for 18% of video ad dollars. TVREV stressed that such stats included social and other web video. Similarly, it cited recent Nielsen The Gauge data showing that in the past two quarters streaming now surpasses both cable and broadcast in terms of hours watched. TVREV says this stat has often been misinterpreted as implying that streaming now surpasses the combined total of both cable and broadcast, which is not the case.
The analyst’s own figures calculated that subscription services with ad tiers will likely increase their share of TV ad spend from 13% in 2023 to 25% by 2025. Broadcast TV’s share of ad spend will fall from 23% in 2023 to 15% by 2025 and able TV’s ad spend share will also decrease from 47% in 2023 to 25% by 2025.
However, TVREV warned of a lack of standardisation as the biggest issue the market believes is facing FAST advertising right now. This is an issue that the analyst said impacts just about every aspect of the streaming ecosystem, from planning to measurement to transparency to privacy. This is partly because the whole ecosystem is so new, and partly because the different parties – that is buyers, sellers and middlemen - rarely attempt to work together.
