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The digital advertising landscape is undergoing several seismic shifts reshaping how brands reach consumers. As the industry navigates the growing influence of AI as well as the move towards a privacy-first advertising model, digital channels are evolving individually as well. And one of the most important transformations for advertising leaders to understand is taking place in the world of TV and digital video.
Where and how consumers watch TV and video content has grown increasingly fluid, challenging advertisers’ approach to once status-quo TV strategies. At the same time, streaming platforms are evolving, presenting new opportunities for advertisers, but also deepening fragmentation and media complexity.
In this context, forward-thinking marketing teams are no longer translating traditional linear TV strategies into connected TV environments, but rather evolving their digital TV strategies for a consumer base that is video-first and device-agnostic. To do so effectively, it’s critical for advertising leaders to understand video and TV viewership trends, how streaming platforms are changing, and the impact of programmatic CTV.
It’s no secret that screen time has steadily ticked up over the years, with consumers’ near-insatiable desire for video content leading the way. US adults will spend 4 hours per day with digital video in 2025, accounting for a significant portion of the average person’s leisure time. As consumers diversify their video viewing, time spent with traditional TV environments is trending downward, estimated to average 2 hours and forty-eight minutes in 2025—and almost a quarter of Americans don’t watch any live TV at all. The modern consumer is no longer confined to a single screen or a fixed schedule, as video is available everywhere, at any time.
Digital engagement around the 2024 Summer Olympics is a poignant example of these shifting video viewership habits, as well as a useful case study for advertisers on what the next era of digital video strategy will look like. NBC Universal embraced consumers’ diversified viewing preferences, making Olympics content accessible across all video environments. The opening ceremony was the most streamed live event in Peacock’s history, and viewers watched a whopping 23.5 billion streaming minutes across NBCU digital platforms throughout the games, representing a 40% increase from all previous Olympics combined. That momentum spilled over into social environments, driving a 497% increase in social video viewership compared to the Tokyo Olympics. Even more, brands that advertised during the opening ceremony generated a 320% greater search volume than brands who advertised during the Tokyo opening ceremony.
It's worth noting that consumer video viewing habits weren’t the only contributing factor to these increases in digital engagement compared to the Tokyo Olympics: For example, the Paris Olympics took place in a time zone that was more convenient for US viewers than the Tokyo Games, and wasn’t hampered by mask mandates for athletes or a lack of in-person viewers due to the COVID-10 pandemic like the Tokyo games were.
Still, the Paris Games demonstrated that building video strategies to support consumers’ evolved viewing behaviors pays dividends. More specifically, the digital engagement around the Paris Games provides two big takeaways for advertising leaders looking to meet today’s consumers via video.
The first is that today’s TV buys can’t exist in a vacuum. Any investment in CTV must be supported by complementary online and social video placements. CTV may be where a brand’s story begins, but the opportunity to continue the narrative and engage consumers on a deeper level exists within the platforms consumers turn to in search of more content or more information. Advertisers would do well to lean into the unique opportunities presented by each video environment to harness cultural moments, user generated content, and short-form video formats to bring more of their brand or clients to leaned-in audiences.
Secondly, advertising leaders must invest in TV and video in a way that reflects viewership trends. In 2025, consumers will spend one-fifth of their daily media time with CTV, yet advertisers are forecast to allocate just 7.8% of their budgets to the channel. On the other hand, 7.5% of daily media time is spent with Meta’s platforms, but those platforms receive 21.3% of ad spend.
Ultimately, advertisers who adapt their strategies to support the new era of TV and video consumption will have a competitive edge over those who delay adjusting their strategies in tandem with consumer behavior.
While advertisers contend with shifting viewership behaviors more broadly, streaming platforms are experiencing an ongoing evolution of their own to meet the demands of both consumers and advertisers. Observant advertisers will notice two trends shaping this evolution: the pursuit of profitability and the integration of advanced ad tech.
Many streaming platforms have reached a critical juncture where profitability is a pressing concern. As a result, platforms are adopting greater enthusiasm for password-sharing crackdowns (Netflix is already seeing dividends from their efforts in this area, and Disney recently launched a crackdown of their own), rolling out increased subscription costs, and pushing consumers toward ad-supported tiers and bundled offerings. Because of these efforts as well as the larger upward trend of streaming viewership, 54% of the US population will have ad-supported subscriptions in 2025. Compounding this is the growth in FAST viewership, which is projected to grow by 15% each year until 2027.
For advertisers, these changes not only provide more eyeballs to reach, but also individual household account-level data—so marketing teams can be sure they’re targeting their intended consumers, and not their intended consumers’ best friends and family members. As streaming platforms move more users to ad-based subscriptions, advertisers will see CPMs come down as streamers aim to remain competitive. This happened earlier in 2024, when Amazon Prime flooded the market with new ad-supported users, pushing Netflix to drop their CPMs by $10. Advertisers can expect premium inventory to grow more widely accessible thanks to this influx of impressions, and can capitalize on declining costs by leaving space in their budgets for more cost-effective testing opportunities.
As streaming platforms pursue advertising to diversify revenue streams and increase profitability, they’re also prioritizing adtech integrations and partnerships. Netflix, for example, announced it was building out its own adtech platform at the 2024 Upfronts, and other platforms are investing in partnerships with DSPs, measurement providers, clean rooms, alternative identity solutions, and retail media networks to enhance activation, measurement, and targeting capabilities.
As streaming platforms invest more deeply in adtech, advertisers not only have access to more robust opportunities, but these opportunities will be available to a broader range of marketing teams. 70% of the advertisers who supported the 2024 Summer Olympics were new entrants, demonstrating a growing trend toward democratization in premium streaming environments. For advertising leaders, these developments represent a growing opportunity, as premium inventory is made more broadly available in the streaming landscape.
Given the fragmentation and complexity that has become a hallmark of the digital video landscape, it’s no wonder that 75% of CTV inventory is now purchased programmatically. Advertisers are turning to programmatic not only to unify their buying across an increasingly unmanageable volume of platforms, but also to reach their audiences with precision, regardless of where they are.
Meanwhile, economic volatility persists, and marketers are pushed to do more with less. Programmatic advertising provides the tools needed to build sophisticated, yet cost-effective, TV and video strategies. It allows for precise targeting using both third- and first-party data, and supports dynamic ad formats that can adapt to diverse viewing contexts. Programmatic supplies advertisers with the tools needed to reach consumers as they move between various streaming platforms, device screens, and video formats, ensuring a cohesive brand experience.
It’s no wonder the 2024 Upfronts season saw the push toward programmatic grow stronger as buyers demanded that inventory partners prioritize greater access to the addressability, flexibility, and measurement capabilities that are inherent to programmatic. Programmatic demand is rippling across the industry: Advertisers who are increasing CTV spend in 2024 are 61% more likely to purchase those impressions programmatically than those who aren’t increasing CTV spend. Even more, 43% of buyers are pulling budget from linear TV to do so.
As the TV landscape continues to evolve, programmatic provides advertisers with the agility required to keep pace with ongoing changes to capabilities and video consumption habits. However, to make the most of this opportunity, advertising leaders must be wary of rising brand safety and ad fraud threats on CTV, and support their programmatic strategies with safeguards to protect their budgets as well as the reputations of their brand or clients.
Overall, savvy marketers will work with their teams to identify and address areas of underinvestment in programmatic CTV, ensuring they’re taking advantage of the opportunity to activate more sophisticated buys.
Like many other aspects of the advertising industry, the TV and video landscape is undergoing a profound transformation. As traditional boundaries dissolve and new platforms and technologies emerge, forward-thinking advertising leaders must adapt their strategies to stay competitive.
Shifting video consumption habits and a growing volume of ad-supported streamers have placed programmatic advertising at the forefront of this evolution, offering powerful tools for precision targeting, dynamic ad formats, and comprehensive measurement. By embracing these advancements, advertising teams can navigate the complexities of today’s media environment and capitalize on the opportunities presented by the rapidly evolving TV landscape.
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Want to dig deeper into the digital video opportunity? Check out Video Unleashed: The Ultimate Guide to Digital Video Advertising for all the insights and research advertisers need to successfully integrate digital video into their paid media campaigns.