Live sports represent the last mass TV audience, driving a surge in sports TV ad spending. But ad prices are climbing as demand intensifies, forcing advertisers to face rising costs and limited inventory.

Advertisers running on all nine streaming platforms account for 34% of US streaming TV ad spending, according to a March report from MediaRadar.

US streaming TV advertising is seeing a significant influx of new advertisers and increased budgets. While Hulu maintains its ad revenue lead, a growing number of brands are diversifying their spend across multiple platforms to reach viewers.

Big media acquisitions and streaming integrations will contribute to consolidation in connected TV (CTV) ad spending.

CTV inventory has surged, but the linear TV ad market remains much larger.

Streaming services are leaning more on advertising than they used to, resulting in increased overall ad spending but lower ad prices.

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.

Netflix is building an ad business to diversify its revenue streams.

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

The range of costs per thousand on major US streaming services is narrowing as new entrants Netflix and Disney+ come down from their initial ad-tier launch highs in late 2022.

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

Podcast listening keeps making gains, and the medium is becoming a bigger part of marketers’ audio strategies.

Connected TV ad spending continues to expand substantially.

According to our July 2021 forecast, 2023 will be a pivotal year for the US B2B digital ad market: Display will overtake search, mobile will surpass nonmobile, and the split between digital and traditional will near a tipping point just beyond our forecast period.

Advertisers are increasing their upfront commitments, particularly for connected TV.

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.

Digital ad spending in the US healthcare and pharmaceutical industry will grow by 14.2% to reach $9.53 billion in 2020. Growth is being fueled by ads related to COVID-19, including public service announcements, medical supplies and telemedicine.

The pandemic has caused the US automotive industry to reduce its digital ad spending by 18.2% in 2020. As car sales plummeted, dealerships closed, and manufacturing slowed, marketers backed off from performance initiatives and focused on branding efforts.

In a difficult year for digital advertising overall, US travel industry spending will decline faster than any other vertical. It will bring up the rear in total spending and claim the smallest market share of all industries we cover.

The CPG industry will increase its investments in digital advertising this year as strong sales of essential goods and personal care products—particularly on ecommerce platforms—gave advertisers reasons to keep spending during the pandemic.