Hugh Scallon’s Post

✅🖥️ Variety (7/1): “ Pay TV. SVOD. AVOD. Social video. They aren’t often grouped together, but the latest data in the new Variety report “Social Video vs. SVOD: The Race to Replace TV” suggests they can be thought of as a series of historical shifts in U.S. audience viewing behavior. First, the cable business broke broadcast TV’s stranglehold in the 1980s. Thirty years later, Netflix led a field of successor streaming services that siphoned eyeballs at equally sizable scale from linear TV. And now even though streaming is hardly done in terms of its growth relative to broadcast and cable, there are signs of a paradigm shift already in motion: a third wave of fragmentation in which social video begins to eat into the market share of major streaming services. Data keeps mounting that video consumption on the big social platforms — primarily YouTube, TikTok and Instagram — is growing strongly, with users spending more time on these platforms each year. In this report, Variety provides a data-driven probe into how this viewing may impact time spent with subscription video.” ⬇️ #streamingtv #ctv #ott #upfronts #socialmedia #tv3 #cordcutting #genz https://lnkd.in/eUbfGa_D

✅🖥️ Mediapost (7/2): “The slow-moving marketplace was expected to some extent. This was accelerated by declines in overall legacy TV gross rating points -- and further complicated by streaming platforms' CPMs dropping like a stone due to the inclusion of Amazon Prime Video adding an ad-supported option that tossed big ad inventory supplies into the marketplace. A smaller contribution of new streaming ad inventory will come from Disney+ and Netflix adding in streaming advertising inventory to the overall marketplace. Still, some analysts expect scatter to play a major role in the 2024-25 TV season that traditionally starts in the third week in September. (One analyst) estimates the linear TV advertising scatter market for next season will barely change -- estimated to be $20.68B versus $20.48B for the 2023-24 TV season. At the same time, streaming scatter revenue will decline -- to $10.14B from $10.64B. The big winner? Streaming inventory sold in the upfront. It is poised for growth to $18.61B, rising dramatically from $13.55B. In line with viewing share that continues to rise, brands will boost their upfront streaming advertising coffers right now.” ⬇️ #streamingtv #ctvadvertising #upfronts #ott #avod #smarttv https://lnkd.in/eyMjgqJU

✅🖥️ AdExchanger (6/28): “AdExchanger: What about digital-native brands that want to treat streaming TV like a performance marketing channel? Gartner: Competent performance marketers are starting to embrace streaming, including using it to compare incrementality with the rest of their buys. Their dollars are helping contribute to the maturation of the market. At the same time, there’s a big difference between CTV and over-the-top (OTT). Because OTT encompasses devices other than television sets, like phones and desktops, there’s more signal and attribution there that’ll attract direct response advertisers. People still don’t interrupt their TV viewing sessions very often to go and buy things, but when they do, it’s much more likely to happen on a personal device, not a TV screen. AdExchanger: What streaming trends will dominate for the remainder of the year? Gartner: The digital-native platforms are taking control of connected TV – and it’s not just the new entrants to ad-supported streaming, like Netflix and Prime Video. YouTube’s grip continues to tighten on the CTV market. TV programmers and digital platforms will continue to compete for streaming ad dollars by trying to differentiate themselves. Ad load is an especially big question streamers are trying to tackle right now.” ⬇️ #streaming #ctv #ott #upfronts #avod #fast

✅🖥️ NScreenMedia (Podcast; 6/27): “In this exclusive, must-listen interview, Top Wall Street media analyst Michael Nathanson dives into the major issues driving the TV and streaming industries. — Run Of Show — Top-line conclusions from the U.S. Advertising: Competition is Healthy…and Hard Report (1:00) Amazon Prime Video had an enormous impact on the AVOD market in the first half of the year. The impact of Prime Video (5:00) Nathanson explains how Amazon Prime Video’s entry into the AVOD market impacted ad sales and discusses the big losers from Prime Video’s ad market blitz. Ad growth accelerates (8:40) The company is expecting ad growth to reach 33% this year. YouTube’s impact on the market (9:30) YouTube is already the leading streaming service on connected TV in the US. Michael explains the service’s overall strategy and heaps praise on YouTube TV. Why has TV lost so much share of advertising (14:00) The report says TV’s share of overall ad spending, including AVOD, in the US was 32% but will fall to 21% this year. I asked him why. He shares his forecast for YouTube TV subscribers and market position in 2026. We also discuss why YouTube is such a threat to traditional television providers. The FAST market (22:30) The FAST market seems to be cooling slightly, but Michael cautions against falling ad rates. Broadcasters and the DTC market (26:30) Why broadcasters are having such a tough time in the direct-to-consumer market, and what to do about it. Broadcaster managers didn’t act soon enough with streaming (32:00) Is streaming future supported by ads? (34:50) Can bundles change broadcaster’s DTC success (35:30) Big tech and the television industry (39:40) The biggest surprise in the next year (41:30)” ⬇️ #upfronts #streamingtv #ctvadvertising #cordcutting #fast #avod #svod #smartv

✅🖥️ The Hollywood Reporter (6/26): “By now everyone in Hollywood seems to accept that streaming is a cutthroat business. It may not be zero sum (most studies suggest that consumers will pay for about four streaming services at a time), but it is mighty close to it. And with Netflix holding a secure lock on one of those subscriptions for most consumers, there is increasingly little room for error. But the streaming wars between giant services like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney, Max, Peacock, Paramount+ and others also obscure an entire ecosystem of streaming offerings that are trying to carve out their own niches in an increasingly difficult environment. For all the press that the big streaming platforms get, there is a surprisingly vibrant world of boutique and specialty streamers chasing loyal and engaged fans at a much smaller scale. And new players continue to enter the space. In the world of comedy, there is Dropout, born out of the comedy website College Humor. And BuzzFeed veterans-turned YouTubers The Try Guys and Watcher have launched dedicated subscription streaming offerings of their own in recent weeks in an effort to more effectively monetize the sometimes fleeting audience that YouTube or social platforms deliver. Sony offers CrunchyRoll, an anime-focused service, which boasts 13MM subscribers; AMC Networks operates services like the horror-centric Shudder and the British-focused Acorn TV; and Cineverse operates the horror service Screambox and independent film service Fandor.” ⬇️ #streamingtv #ctvadvertising #avod #svod #fast #ott https://lnkd.in/eyBBAdWE

✅🖥️ Variety (6/26): “When the news program “CBS News 24/7” surfaces Wednesday morning on streaming venues, it may surprise the average information junkie. There’s no typical anchor behind a desk here. Instead, on-screen hosts too busy to read scripted lines from a teleprompter will guide viewers from one story to the next, many of which are happening in real time. All are displayed prominently on a screen of insta-feeds from CBS newsrooms around the nation or from points of interest around the world. When it’s time to move beyond the quick headline, or some chatter about what’s happening at the moment, the host is meant to identify the feed, then let viewers hear from people and experts on the ground. It’s entirely possible that a host might start talking to producers and assignment editors while on camera about what’s going on in the feeds and what needs to be looked at first. CBS will stream hours of the show at 10 a.m. from New York, led by Vladimir Duthiers, and at 1 p.m. from San Francisco, guided by Reed Cowan. The streaming audience — seen as being as much as 20 years younger than its linear counterparts — has come to expect to build its own primetime schedule; to decide whether to watch recaps or end credits; and to pause a show at moments of its own choosing. Why wouldn’t it expect new flexibility out of the news?” ⬇️ #streamingtv #ctvadvertising #news #journalism #fast #avod #ott https://lnkd.in/encwBURP

✅🖥️ CNBC (6/26): “YouTube made up 9.7% of all viewership on connected and traditional TVs in the U.S. in May — the largest share of TV for a streaming platform ever reported by Nielsen’s monthly “The Gauge” report. Netflix ranked second, claiming 7.6% of viewership. Among streamers only, YouTube’s total viewership was close to 25% market share. “We’re not talking about your mobile phone, your laptop, that I’m sure you see your kids using all the time, but on the biggest screen in the house, the TV,” said LightShed media analyst Rich Greenfield. “Every [media] executive has to be paying attention.” But media companies such as Netflix, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery aren’t sure whether YouTube is friend or foe. Some media executives see YouTube as a companion platform to subscription streaming services and cable TV — an unwieldy behemoth of non-narrative, creator-led content with a social media slant that doesn’t really fit the New York-Hollywood nexus of professional media. Others — even at times the same executives — view YouTube as an existential threat to the entertainment industry, stealing viewership from subscription streaming services and, with it, the cultural center of American youth. Those competing truths have led media and entertainment companies to concoct a wide array of strategies to combat the growing threat.” ⬇️ #streamingtv #ott #ctvadvertising #avod #mobile #smarttv

✅🖥️ AdExchanger (column; 6/21): “Beyond video ad currencies, streaming publishers and ad tech companies are zeroing in on outcomes-based measurement. Also in Cannes this week, Disney announced a new partnership with retail data provider Affinity Solutions, which collects sales and purchase data from banks and credit companies. Using Disney’s clean room tech, brands and buyers can use Affinity’s purchase data to plan and measure campaigns across Disney inventory. And it isn’t just entertainment giants like Disney with plans to put more attribution data to work in streaming. Last week, for example, the DSP Madhive acquired the omnichannel marketing platform Frequence. For Madhive, the goal is to create more opportunities to retarget streaming viewers on other channels. Since TV ads don’t drive direct clicks, retargeting is a popular tactic for applying performance marketing to CTV. And Madhive isn’t the only programmatic platform buying up tools for video and CTV performance marketing. Seedtag and Equativ each acquired a video-focused SSP – Beachfront and Sharethrough, respectively – to bolster their repertoire of CTV and video supply. What I’m wondering is this: How will the buzz at Cannes shape measurement and currency deliberations between now and the end of upfront negotiations?” ⬇️ #streamingtv #crossscreen #measurement #ctv #ott #upfronts https://lnkd.in/eCDWm4Hg

✅🖥️ New York Times (6/22): “Streaming has long been hailed as a promising business, because companies like Netflix can add additional subscribers at little extra cost. The more paying subs a service has, the more the company’s costs can be spread out over a large base, lowering the cost per sub. But those want lots of options, and the costs of making enough programming can be enormous. As a result, a streaming service’s profitability depends in large part on how many paying subs are needed before those TV shows and movies become cost-effective. There was a time when industry execs hoped that number might be as low as 100MM. But now the consensus among many of the executives interviewed is that the number is at least 200, and possibly more. “If you’re going to be a full entertainment service with live sports and tent-pole blockbusters today, 200MM is a number that can give you the scale with the hope for growth over time,” Amazon (execs have) said. Bob Chapek, Disney’s CEO until 2022, also agreed that 200 was the number that meant “you’re big enough to compete.” Netflix has reached that, and then some, with about 270MM paying subs. Moreover, those pay an industry-leading average of more than $11 per month. Netflix is highly profitable, with operating margins of 28 percent. In the first quarter of 2024, Netflix reported revenue of $9.4B, and $2.3B in net income. No one else comes close. Disney and Amazon are the only other streaming services with more than 200MM subscribers.” ⬇️ #streamingtv #ctvadvertising #avod #svod #ott #fast #upfronts