Connected TV (CTV) and streaming services will make new inroads this year to further capture audiences and enhance offerings to marketers. Precise measurement and predictable buys are giving those that opted out of linear TV the confidence to invest in streaming.
Meanwhile, streamers will continue to claim a significant stake in live sports.
“Netflix's big splash with the NFL Christmas Day broadcast signals a new normal in sports video licensing,” said our analyst Paul Verna in a recent episode of "Behind the Numbers.”
Here’s how CTV is pursuing new advertisers and audiences in 2025, according to our analysts.
CTV courts smaller players
Streaming services are aiming to simplify investments in CTV to encourage more small and mid-sized players to enter the space—Roku rolled out its self-serve advertising platform in September, and more players are also investing in programmatic advertising. The share of small and mid-sized buyers will eventually become the majority when streamers become “tapped out of big brands,” said our analyst Ross Benes.
“Big brands are the early adopters, but to really grow the revenue for their streaming platforms, [streamers] are going to have to embrace more small advertisers,” he said, adding that this has been the longterm tactic of both YouTube and Facebook. “You're going to see more ‘YouTube-ification’ of streaming.”
This will create noticeable changes in the creative quality of CTV ads, said Benes.
“If you're going for a small auto dealer that's just in [one] region, they're not going to make a national Toyota ad that's on Monday Night Football,” he said. “You're going to see some cheaper creative as more performance [advertisers] and smaller advertisers are crowding the market.”
Streamers claim white space in sports
Netflix has spent the last year carving out an expanding space for itself in live sports. It hosted the NFL Christmas Day broadcast, livestreamed the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight, and signed an exclusive license worldwide to stream the next two FIFA Women's World Cups. The presence of streamers in live sports will catalyze more representation for women’s leagues, as well as “lesser-known sports and more niche sports,” said Verna.
“It's really just a much more unpredictable landscape,” he said. “The platforms most involved in sports were the ones that had the big budgets and the combination of legacy media and streaming media.”
Streamers’ need to differentiate in the sports market, coupled with their global audiences, will naturally bring new sports into the spotlight, according to our analysts.
"Tech companies are best positioned to take advantage of that global interest and they can be a lot more nimble than traditional broadcasters,” said Verna. “That's part of what's fueled the tech boom in sports licensing, and it's just going to continue with Netflix as now a major player.”
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