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First up on Inside the Stream this week Colin and I discuss the latest data from Nielsen’s The Gauge report. While it said that “linear TV” viewing fell below 50% for the first time, we explain how a more accurate headline would probably be that broadcast and cable TV viewing fell below 50%. Viewership is following along with pay-TV adoption, which we also discuss fell further in Q2 ’23....
In this week’s podcast we discuss the overlapping “doom loops” that are crushing the TV industry. These were first articulated by MoffettNathanson, and built upon by Colin. The doom loops include 1) TV networks shifting investment/focus from linear TV to streaming, in turn driving more cord-cutting, 2) Fewer remaining pay-TV subscribers available to shoulder the cost of sports TV networks, in...
Disney released a flurry of announcements this week - deeper integration of Hulu and Disney+, international brand transition from Star to Hulu, ESPN acquiring NFL Network and Red Zone, NFL investing billions in ESPN, and ESPN acquiring rights to stream major WWE events.
We break it all down and handicap what it likely means to Disney’s future success. One thing that’s for certain: starting...
eMarketer’s latest data reveals that in 2024, 20 million more viewers will consume live sports on streaming than on pay-TV. With a number of marquee games shifting to streaming ahead (notably NBA to Amazon and Peacock), streaming is poised for more gains. eMarketer forecasts that in 2027 over 127 million viewers will consume live sports on streaming vs. just 75 million for pay-TV.
As we...
According to new data from Hub Entertainment Research, Amazon’s Prime Video now has the highest percentage any major SVOD provider taking its ad-supported tier. And it happened by Amazon simply flipping a switch at Prime Video to make ads the default for all subscribers. Perhaps most interesting is that two other major SVOD providers - Netflix and Disney+ used completely different strategies in...
This week we look through all the buzz around the new Disney/Fox/WBD sports JV to understand the service’s opportunity and likely impact on the TV market.
Two key questions we consider: 1) How big is the target market of sports super-fans for the JV who haven’t maintained their pay-TV subscription (since sports has been a firewall to cord-cutting)? And 2) With ESPN’s own direct-to-consumer...
Most media and technology companies have now reported Q1 ’23 results. We dig into who’s up, who’s down and who’s pick ‘em, and where they all might be headed. We share all this with the caveat that one quarter’s results are not the final word on a company’s ability to survive and thrive going forward. We hope we’re not in any way contributing to the short-term, quarterly performance myopia so...
I attended the 2023 IAB NewFronts earlier this week and today on Inside the Stream we discuss my 5 key takeaways. These include 1) connected TV as the dominant throughline in all the presentations, 2) an early shift in messaging around how CTV campaigns should move to more full/lower-funnel KPIs, 3) whether the overwhelming volume and pure free, ad-supported nature of FASTs should be concerning...
First up this week, YouTube continued its strong ad revenue growth in Q2 2025, with revenue rising 13% to $9.8 billion, ahead of its forecast. There’s plenty of growth still ahead as Shorts gain traction, advertisers tap conversion opportunities and AI permeates both content and monetization.
Meanwhile Samsung signed a number of creators to put original content on its Samsung TV Plus FAST...
This week we discuss new data from Inscape, Deloitte and HarrisX, which all illustrate how streaming is continuing to build its dominance over traditional media. To highlight a few key points:
Inscape found that among its VIZIO panel of users, 55% are streaming-only (i.e. no pay-TV), up from 49% in 2022. Deloitte reported that the average U.S. household is now spending $61 per month on 4...