The news: As linear TV and streaming grow more intertwined, media buyers across several key markets are finding that traditional currencies and transaction methods aren’t cutting it, according to the “State of Converged TV” report from TVSquared, released Wednesday.
Dig deeper: Buyers believe that the definition of “TV” has fundamentally changed, but while they and their clients are ready for more flexibility and connection, media companies can be slow to catch up.
- More than three-quarters (76%) of media buyers in the US, UK, Germany, and Australia at least somewhat agreed that “TV” refers to both linear and streaming, per the report.
- The majority (86%) agreed at least somewhat that cross-platform TV measurement and attribution was a leading priority for their company or clients. But 57% said that the accuracy of cross-platform measurement and attribution was one of the biggest challenges of converged TV advertising, suggesting a disconnect between what clients want and what TV companies actually offer.
Why it matters: With ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) gaining even greater popularity, it’s become more important for advertisers to transact across both linear and digital.
- For context, we expect there will be 127.7 million AVOD viewers in the US alone this year, per our inaugural AVOD forecast released last month.
- While that's only about half of the 245.7 million linear TV viewers in the US, we expect linear TV will keep shedding viewers by a few percentage points a year, and AVOD viewership will rise consistently until at least 2025.