The medium screen: New data on ad impressions shows that more YouTube viewing is happening on TVs, suggesting the platform will soon become an increasingly popular place to reallocate TV ad dollars.

“Roku Recommends” rolls out: The new show from Roku’s branded content studio surfaces top streaming content and gives advertisers a chance to reach viewers who might otherwise skip straight to ad-free services.

This report explores our Q1 2021 estimates of time spent with media in the US and analyzes which behaviors will stick in 2021.

Before the pandemic, linear addressable TV ad spending was soaring in the US, with annual growth rates of 50.7% in 2018 and 36.5% in 2019. But that spending increased by just 7.3% in 2020, amid advertising budget cuts in the TV industry.

NewFronts recap: Exclusive content on ad-supported platforms, shoppable shows, and creator-driven video content on social media were three major trends we saw at the NewFronts this past week.

Connected TV (CTV) advertising was a beneficiary of pandemic trends and remains one of digital advertising’s fastest-growing channels. Last year, linear TV decreased in importance to advertisers, as cord-cutting accelerated and more programmatic CTV inventory became available than ever before.

What to look out for at the NewFronts: CTV and social video will shine at this week's digital upfront presentations, as both formats have grown rapidly over the past year.

On today's episode, we discuss how airlines, hotels, and vacation rental homes are recovering, and the ways in which travel might be changed forever. We then talk about the shift of ad dollars and viewers from connected TV to linear, TV makers that are staking their future growth on streaming ads, and how the vMVPD (skinny bundle) market is shaking out. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer associate forecasting analyst Zach Goldner, director of forecasting Oscar Orozco, and senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom.

US advertisers increased their investments on digital media by almost 15% last year despite a pandemic and recession, looking for flexibility and accountability.

With the over-the-top (OTT) portion of the upfronts continuing to expand, marketers are increasingly realizing the benefits of using a unified platform to activate TV.

The pandemic led to many upward revisions of our UK digital user forecasts. Some changes (podcast listeners) will be permanent, while others will be temporary (digital gamers). Our social network user numbers, meanwhile, didn’t change much at all.

Within digital media channels, probably the longest-standing gap in measurement information lies with the walled gardens—a group that includes Google, Facebook, a host of other walled social platforms, and Amazon. Some in the industry are also talking more of walled gardens—or attempts to build them—in the connected TV (CTV) or over-the-top (OTT) space.

TV ads are still playing to win

Advertiser demand for video impressions has always outstripped supply, but supply has gotten a big boost as consumers started adopting streaming video viewing in larger numbers—especially on CTV devices—and more of those impressions have been made available programmatically.

US programmatic display ad spending was up more than 10% in 2020 despite the pandemic-induced recession and will rebound this year as advertisers continue shifting budgets to flexible, measurable media.

eMarketer senior research analyst Audrey Schomer and senior analyst at Insider Intelligence Ross Benes discuss what they're paying attention to in 2021 and why: the overhaul of traditional screen distribution and how connected TV's operating systems are fighting to control the user screen.

For the first time this year, we broke out CTV ad revenues for YouTube, Roku, and Hulu.

eMarketer principal analyst Nicole Perrin and forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom discuss what they're paying attention to in 2021 and why: digital ad measurement, connected TV, and ecommerce channel advertising.

YouTube is the single biggest source of supply in US CTV advertising. The digital video platform’s outsize role in the US CTV space is particularly striking given that advertisers can’t access CTV inventory on YouTube on non-Google platforms (e.g., Roku).

YouTube viewing is shifting to connected TV (CTV) screens, a behavioral change that could help make YouTube a powerful alternative for TV advertisers moving dollars to digital video.