FAST trend grows globally: New channels from Free Live Sports, CBC, and Pluto TV showcase demand for free, ad-supported streaming options.

The number of companies generating more than $1 billion in annual US CTV ad sales more than doubled from two in 2020 to five in 2024. With ad dollars spreading out among services, a few streaming platforms stand out because of their heavy usage.

Advertisers and tech vendors look to capitalize on CTV’s growing importance in digital advertising.

This is the first installment of our quarterly “Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

Canada ranks near the top of the list of countries for average daily time spent with media, with digital formats driving consumption to new levels.

Catch up on how FAST services are shaking up TV advertising.

With most of the US already watching, growth in overall OTT viewership has slowed to a crawl. But some platforms, formats, and service tiers are still booming, and digital pay TV is complicating the linear TV narrative.

Among subscription video streaming services, Amazon Prime Video has the highest share of ad-supported viewers, while Netflix has the lowest.

The ecommerce giant’s launch of ads on Prime Video instantly gave it the largest audience for an ad-supported subscription video service in the US.

Ads managers are the main driver of programmatic direct ad spending, which has become the primary method of programmatic advertising in Canada in social media and connected TV.

Ad spending growth is tapering off, but major changes are coming to the market, including the deprecation of third-party identifiers, a new era in TV ad measurement, and growing use of AI in advertising.

Among major streaming services, Netflix’s time spent share exceeds ad revenues the most, indicating it has the most room to expand.

Netflix’s advertising strategy is evolving as streaming services raise subscription prices to sway users to ad-supported tiers.

This report is a guideline to help marketers understand connected TV through market size estimates, growth projections, and analysis of the complex landscape of ad buyers and sellers.

On today's episode, we introduce you to the FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) services (e.g., Tubi, The Roku Channel, and Pluto TV), explain how they became so popular, and look ahead to see what their ceiling is. "In Other News," we talk about whether the advertising space is on the mend and how significant of an ad player Microsoft is. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Ross Benes and director of Briefings Jeremy Goldman.

Our latest forecasts for TV and CTV ad spending, as well as those for time spent with each medium, point to CTV’s inevitable eclipse of its linear counterpart.

Connected TV (CTV) will be the fastest-growing major ad format in 2023, despite a downward revision in our latest forecast. Time spent on CTV is also showing big gains.

The over-the-top (OTT) streaming landscape is rapidly becoming as crowded as the early days of cable TV. It is vital that marketers understand the scale, reach, and prospects of the various players in the industry.

Ad-supported video gains viewership, time spent on digital video surpasses TV, and streaming services pivot from audience growth to profitability.

Paramount is playing catch-up when it comes to ad innovation: The media giant is exploring a number of initiatives to fuel its aggressive streaming goals.