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In this Meet the Analyst Webinar, eMarketer principal analyst Nicole Perrin discussed how advertisers and their partners are hoping to continue getting the right messages to the right audiences and measuring the results of digital advertising.

The eMarketer team deliberated extensively to select the 10 key digital trends to watch in 2021 from a list of 43. Which trends narrowly missed the cut? Here’s our first in a series of additional transformative developments that ought to be on your radar in the year ahead.

The consumption of at-home media and entertainment thrived amid the coronavirus pandemic, but the total shutdown of live events and the pause on film and TV production will cause digital ad spending to decline in 2020.

US TV ad spending is now expected to decline by 15.0% this year to reach $60 billion, down from $70.59 billion in 2019.

With more video entertainment options than ever, consumers are increasingly opting to forgo pay TV. Pay TV viewers still outnumber non-pay-TV viewers, which are made up of cord-cutters and cord-nevers. (Cord-cutters are consumers who once had but then canceled a pay TV service. Cord-nevers are those who have never subscribed to pay TV in the first place.) But that gap is closing.

Some 11% of internet users ages 18 to 35 said they would unsubscribe from pay TV this year—nearly double that of the national average. Many of Argentina’s pay TV operators have responded with attractive promotions to entice customers to keep their current pay TV plan.

In this year’s “Key Digital Trends” report, we examine changes coming to the digital media and technology landscape in 2021—including legislation, privacy, entertainment, social media, and more—and why they matter to marketers.

Cord-cutter: Someone who once had but then cancelled a pay TV service. Cord-never: Someone who never subscribed to pay TV in the first place. Cord-trimmer: Someone who cut back on their pay TV service level but still subscribes. Esports: Organized gaming competitions among professional players and teams.

Cord-cutter: Someone who once had but then cancelled a pay TV service. Cord-never: Someone who never subscribed to pay TV in the first place. Cord-trimmer: Someone who cut back on their pay TV service level but still subscribes. Esports: Organized gaming competitions among professional players and teams.

Most advertisers have pulled back their spending, but streaming services are marketing themselves as heavily as ever.

What has been dubbed the “streaming wars” in many markets—especially in the US—is more like a skirmish in Canada. Despite the influx of US-based services like Disney+ and Apple TV+ in the past year, and the presence of homegrown services like Bell Media’s Crave nationally and Vidéotron’s Club Illico in Quebec, Netflix is still by far the most popular subscription OTT service in Canada.

eMarketer is pleased to moderate a Tech-Talk Webinar featuring Smartly.io’s Rich Lawrence, vice president, US, West, and Dylan L. Douglas, head of customer success, North America. They will share how to plan, set up, and optimize your social advertising campaigns.

Daniel Taiz, president and COO of digital video optimization service Penthera, noted that the pandemic has hastened the shift from pay TV to OTT. “That was probably coming already, but [the pandemic] accelerated it … in a way that's not going to go back,” he said. Trend No. 2: App Clips Will Shift App Install Advertising.