Sports fuels streaming catalogs: SVOD sports titles jumped 77.5%, giving marketers premium digital arenas.

Magnite leans on CTV and mobile: Q1 revenues rose 6%, but much stronger growth in CTV and mobile shows where buyers are concentrating spending.

Amazon’s AI ad engine: Q1 ad sales rose 24% to $17.2 billion as automation and first-party data power full-funnel buys.

Our industry KPI data shows CTV QR code scan rates falling from 0.010% to 0.004% in 2025 as ad clutter and fatigue curb second-screen action.

Streaming sports programs soared 52% YoY in Q1 2026, forcing brands to chase growth beyond linear with balanced media planning.

Market power drives Senate scrutiny for good reason; a combined Netflix–HBO Max would concentrate premium CTV buying without expanding total market size.

Testing ChatGPT ads will cost you; OpenAI's $200,000 minimum upfront ad buys are expensive, but these ads may become commonplace in due time.

Broadcast TV’s share of viewing declined YoY in October despite inching up slightly from the prior month thanks to the NFL season, per Nielsen’s total TV/streaming estimates. Meanwhile, streaming continued to increase its viewership share—highlighting how live sports viewers are increasingly shifting to digital. Those who thrive in the shift to digital will steadily increase budgets for sports streaming while still maintaining some investment in cable and broadcast to reach the many live sports viewers who continue to watch through traditional channels.

Spectrum Reach and Waymark are scaling their AI-powered creative partnership, which has already supported over 15,000 ad campaigns for small and midsize businesses. The collaboration blends Spectrum Reach’s data-driven media targeting with Waymark’s AI video creation tools, enabling broadcast-quality commercials in minutes. The expansion comes as 55% of US small businesses now use AI, up from 39% last year. Together, Spectrum Reach and Waymark are redefining local advertising, proving AI can make creative faster, smarter, and fairer.

At Advertising Week New York 2025, Paramount announced Streaming Fixed Units, an update to its ad offerings for Paramount+ that gives brands premium, fixed ad placements for the debut week of episodes for Paramount series. Brands can leverage Paramount’s newest offering to take advantage of cultural moments, increasing the chances that streaming ads will connect at the right time—but should consider that other platforms with bigger audiences could also tap into this shift more effectively.

Netflix and Amazon Ads have struck a global partnership to bring Netflix’s ad inventory to Amazon’s demand-side platform (DSP) across 12 markets, including the US, UK, France, Japan, and Brazil. The move expands Netflix’s programmatic footprint as it aims to nearly double US ad revenues this year and approach $3 billion globally by 2027. For Amazon, adding Netflix strengthens its DSP’s position; the deal underscores a shift toward centralized TV planning, where Amazon’s DSP increasingly serves as the central gateway for connected TV advertising.

NFL RedZone will bring ads to the current NFL season, stepping away from its commercial-free roots for the first time. Ads will initially only account for 1 minute of RedZone’s seven hours of content but could expand to 2 minutes during the season, per AP News. With attention shifting to digital live sports and RedZone’s availability on ESPN’s new DTC streaming service, advertisers have the opportunity to tap into broad audiences in a format that is likely to be more tolerable to viewers than traditional TV ads.

The news: NFL ads are more effective than anything on linear—but ads during streaming-exclusive games outperformed in the 2024-25 season. Streaming ads were 66% more effective than the cable and broadcast average during the most recent NFL season, per data from EDO. Our take: With streaming platforms capturing engaged audiences for tentpole sports like the NFL, advertisers can leverage CTV not just for reach, but for its superior ability to drive measurable action through precision targeting and interactive formats that linear doesn’t offer.

The news: Out-of-home (OOH) and TV advertising are outperforming popular channels like connected TV (CTV) and digital across metrics, per a five-year study from Clear Channel Outdoor and Kantar. Our take: OOH and TV advertising will continue playing a critical role in an effective omnichannel strategy, and the most savvy advertisers will recognize the enduring effectiveness of these channels for reaching key audiences when they’re likely to purchase.

MNTN debuts as a public company with a $1.6 billion valuation: Its performance-focused CTV adtech aims to bring small businesses into streaming.

Most consumers accept ads in streaming: An Attest study highlighted the growing preference for ad-supported options as streaming proves sustainable.

Strong Q1 ad results show resilience: But AI, tariffs, and antitrust pressures will reshape how and where marketers spend in 2025.

Digital ad giants beat Q1 expectations, but tariffs, regulation, and slowing growth signal choppy waters ahead. This report breaks down which platforms are thriving, which are stalling, and what’s next for search, social, streaming, and retail media.

Amazon debuts three new CTV ad formats: The updates are part of Amazon’s Prime Video ads push and promise to help brands reach highly engaged audiences.

Why CPMs are falling at Upfronts: Increased inventory and viewership is causing streamers to soften prices during the buying season.