If you read the latest analyst forecasts or industry headlines, a clear narrative emerges: programmatic is taking over connected TV. The reality is more complex. While automated deliveries are indeed growing, programmatic’s role in CTV remains widely misunderstood – and sometimes overstated.
This matters for media owners. Confusion around definitions and measurement can distort investment decisions, complicate yield strategies, and cloud how some publishers position their ad inventory in a rapidly evolving market. Understanding where programmatic fits, and where it doesn’t, is essential for anyone making decisions about CTV monetization.
The latest FreeWheel Video Marketplace Report (VMR) found that over 70% of streaming ad views are still delivered directly, outside of programmatic channels. At the same time, some industry forecasts suggest that over 80% of CTV spend is already programmatic. The gap between these figures highlights a deeper problem: the industry still lacks a shared way of defining and measuring programmatic in CTV.
Why the disconnect exists
Programmatic, at its simplest, is about automation. Yet in everyday use, the term has stretched so far that it now covers almost everything. This can include everything from open exchange bidding and private marketplaces to programmatic guaranteed deals, and even digitized versions of old-style insertion orders.
This broad application muddies the waters. For example, guaranteed CTV buys executed through programmatic channels may be classified as programmatic, even though they behave more like direct transactions. At the same time, some forecasts group together very different formats, such as in-stream, outstream, and social video. all under the CTV umbrella. The result is an inflated picture of programmatic’s footprint in premium CTV environments, which has resulted in a narrative that does not always reflect the actual transactions taking place.
For media owners, the problem isn’t just about definitions. It directly affects how buyers perceive value, how inventory is packaged, and how technology investments are prioritised. When “programmatic” can have four or five different meanings, publishers risk being evaluated against expectations that do not align with the real economics of their supply.
CTV is not display, and not linear
Part of the challenge is that CTV doesn’t fit neatly into existing categories. It isn’t digital display, and it isn’t traditional TV. Instead, it combines TV living-room style viewing with digital-style automation.
That in-between status has consequences. Budgets often get split between TV and digital teams, leading to competing KPIs and conflicting expectations. Agencies with more established brand clients may prioritize guaranteed premium placements, while performance-led advertisers may lean towards real-time optimization. Both want automation, but they mean very different things when they use the word “programmatic.”
And then there are publisher realities. Premium inventory is finite. Direct deals remain the backbone when it comes to revenue and they allow tighter control over both supply and the viewing experience. Adding programmatic layers can introduce extra costs and unnecessary operational complexity. Not to mention ongoing issues with signal loss, fraud, lack of transparency, and inventory duplication which all make it harder to trust the open exchange. The idea of pushing all CTV into this model simply doesn’t reflect how premium video is bought and sold today.
The impact of language and alignment
A serious stumbling block for the industry is not the technology but the terminology. “programmatic” is being used to describe multiple, fundamentally different transaction models. Without clearer definitions, buyers and sellers risk building toward different futures. That leaves publishers in a difficult position. Do they double down on auction-based infrastructure, channel resources into tools that support direct guarantees, or try to straddle both? Without greater industry alignment, even the most carefully designed strategies can end up misfiring.
Buyers, too, grow wary when CTV is labelled as “programmatic” but still depends on direct negotiation. The result is a disconnect between expectation and reality. That, in turn, can hold back spend, despite CTV’s growing share of consumer attention. The confusion makes it harder for publishers to position their inventory correctly, and for buyers to evaluate its true value.
A more grounded future
A large share of premium CTV deals still happen within closed publisher ecosystems, using formats and configurations that escape conventional measurement tools. The real challenge isn’t just automation – with the risk of mirroring the display advertising model – it’s figuring out how to make programmatic truly fit CTV without reinforcing the fragmentation that already limits transparency and scale.
This will mean new models that reflect the economics of television, rather than forcing CTV into frameworks designed for other channels. It will also mean new tools that allow publishers to maintain supply control while offering buyers efficiency, better transparency, and the ability to tailor how they transact.
For media owners, progress requires pressing for greater alignment on terminology, more transparency in measurement, and continued investment in infrastructure that supports both efficiency and control. The challenges are real. But so are the opportunities.
Today’s audiences spend an ever-increasing amount time on digital platforms, especially mobile, and expect personalized, on-demand experiences. Traditional formats continue to lose ground, while newer models such as ad-supported streaming and in-game advertising gain momentum. At the same time, global competition and economic pressures are prompting companies in the entertainment industry, and larger media industry, to rethink how they attract and retain audiences.
This shift is more than a change in formats. It reorders the industry’s growth engines. Some media businesses are already reshaping how they create value through advertising and streaming, while they are exploring AI’s potential and new gaming models. PwC’s Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2025–2029 identifies agility as the defining trait of success. The U.S. is still in the lead. However, its future position depends on how effectively companies adapt to new business models and consumer expectations.
Connectivity is the backbone of the media & entertainment industry
Connectivity remains the backbone of the industry, providing the infrastructure for everything from streaming to gaming. According to PwC, U.S. spending in this category will reach $1.3 trillion by 2029, with mobile internet services leading the way. Some companies are leveraging this foundation to reach broader audiences and enhance engagement. As advertising accelerates, the balance between connectivity and ad spending is reshaping how value is measured across the sector.
Advertising emerges as the revenue growth engine
With connectivity as the foundation, advertising has become the primary driver of industry revenues. Internet advertising in the U.S. will increase steadily over the next five years, fueled by connected TV, retail media, and mobile video. With connectivity as a base, advertising continues to drive much of the sector’s revenue growth.
Some U.S. companies are expanding into connected TV, retail media, and mobile video, and globally, advertising revenue is on track to surpass consumer spending. In the U.S., digital formats already capture the majority of ad dollars, and companies that are leaning into these channels are seeing the benefits of monetizing engagement over subscriptions.
Streaming shifts to hybrid models
Streaming remains central to media consumption, and many companies are already leveraging hybrid models that combine subscriptions and ad-supported services. While subscriptions are essential, much of the growth now comes from ad-supported services.
By the end of the decade, ad-supported video-on-demand will account for more than a quarter of total streaming revenue. Leaders like Netflix and Amazon are embracing hybrid models that combine subscriptions with advertising, which reflects consumers’ appetite for more affordable options. This balance between cost and value is driving the next phase of streaming growth.
Gaming is becoming an entertainment industry powerhouse
Gaming is one of the fastest-growing segments of the entertainment industry, but some companies are still experimenting with monetization strategies, especially in mobile free-to-play formats. Global gaming revenues should rise sharply, outpacing both movies and music.
A growing share of gaming revenue is expected to come from advertising, particularly in mobile free-to-play games where consumers are embracing ad-supported experiences. Companies that blend gaming with social media and e-commerce are exploring entirely new pathways for monetization and audience engagement.
Cinema and live events remain resilient
Even with the rise of digital platforms, live experiences continue to hold significance for audiences – and the bottom line. Cinema, concerts, and other events still capture a majority share of U.S. consumer spending, underscoring the enduring appeal of shared experiences.
Box office revenues are predicted to climb in the coming years, bolstered by demand for locally produced films. Studios that diversify storytelling and innovate distribution models are positioning themselves to remain competitive even as global competition increases.
AI drives reinvention in the entertainment industry
Some companies are investing heavily in generative AI to enhance content creation, personalization, ad targeting, and production efficiency. In advertising, AI helps deliver more precise campaigns; in streaming, it improves recommendations and pricing strategies; and in gaming, it enables dynamic, adaptive experiences. These early adopters are uncovering new revenue streams and operational efficiencies.
PwC’s outlook makes one point clear: agility is the key to success. Many media companies are already combining hybrid models with AI-driven innovation and emphasizing a sharp focus on consumer needs. Their long-term growth will come from rethinking revenue strategies, building stronger connections with audiences, and moving quickly when new opportunities emerge.
The streaming landscape continues to evolve, with viewers increasingly leaning into affordability and simplicity over sheer volume of content. Rising prices and a growing number of services are driving many consumers to explore lower-cost, ad-supported options. These shifting preferences are prompting media companies to adjust their monetization strategies to balance subscription income with advertising revenue.
Hub Entertainment Research’s latest Monetizing Video study report shows that price fatigue is real. Hub reports that viewers are increasingly tolerant of ads, especially when this option provides cost savings. They also find that consumers are choosing bundling offers that deliver the right mix of services and features, and – for the right services – subscribers will stay engaged and loyal.
Consumers’ streaming spend nears the limit
Hub’s data shows that the average consumer spends $83 per month on TV services. When researchers ask respondents about their ideal spending level, they say they feel comfortable spending up to about $86. Those who pay for three or more services already exceed their comfort zone and show little willingness to add more.
This mirrors findings from Kantar’s Q2 2025 Entertainment on Demand report, which notes that U.S. streaming households are adding services at the slowest pace in three years, with growth driven primarily by price promotions or bundled offers. Similar trends appear in Deloitte’s Digital Media Trends study, where 47% of consumers say rising subscription costs have prompted them to cancel at least one service in the past six months.
Bundles boost loyalty and reduce churn
Hub’s research finds that new streaming bundles, such as Disney+ with Max or Hulu paired with Disney+, dramatically improve loyalty. Forty-two percent of users report they are much more likely to keep bundled services compared to subscribing to the same services separately.
And, echoing what we found in DCN’s Subscription Tracking Report Q2 2025, the bundling trend is only increasing, especially in SVOD, digital news, magazines, and audio. Fifty-seven percent of subscribers now subscribe to at least one bundle. Bundles offer the perception of savings, simplify subscription management, and make it a more difficult consideration for viewers to churn.
What viewers value most in streaming services
To identify what drives value perception, Hub asked respondents to rank 16 different service attributes. “Low price” still tops the list, which is unsurprising. However, several shifts stand out from last year’s rankings:
Binge-watching full seasons is important, a feature Netflix helped popularize, and competitors now match.
Tolerance for ads is increasing. The importance of “no ads” as a top feature is declining as more viewers embrace free, ad-supported options like Tubi, Roku Channel, and YouTube.
Live sports are gaining ground in perceived value, reflecting the migration of sports rights from traditional TV to streamers.
Access to new theatrical movies is less critical than in previous years, with audiences leaning into original series instead.
Choice of plan tiers matters less than it did in 2022, as consumers gravitate toward simplified bundles.
Ad-supported models gain ground
Hub’s findings on ad tolerance dovetail with broader market data. An Ampere analysis reports that ad-supported tiers from Netflix and Disney+ outperform early expectations. These streaming services attract cost-sensitive subscribers while keeping them in their ecosystem.
The takeaway for streaming services
Industry implications:
Keep pricing pressure in check, monitoring when consumers are at their limit.
Lean into bundles that combine complementary services and simplify billing.
Highlight evergreen value drivers like low price, unlimited access, and binge-worthy content.
Expand ad-supported options that balance affordability with strong programming.
For viewers, these trends promise more manageable bills and fewer subscription headaches. For streamers, bundling and ad-supported strategies offer a path to stable revenue without alienating customers already stretched thin.
The streaming era may be maturing, but it is not slowing down. Price sensitivity is impacting consumer behavior. Therefore, value-added bundles and adaptable pricing models keep the relationship between viewer and streamer strong.
It’s a new era for U.S. sports, from ESPN’s deals with the NFL and WWE to new competition formats from startup leagues such as INTENNSE and Athletes Unlimited. Why? We can look to Gen Z for the answers.
Research shows that Gen Z’s media habits are fundamentally different from older generations and these preferences are reshaping media culture and economics. When it comes to sports media, teams, leagues and distributors are experimenting with new strategies to attract audiences and keep them engaged amidst stiff competition. Media executives in every vertical, including entertainment and news, can benefit from these lessons.
In starting up a new live-streaming FAST channel, Swerve Sports, which is exclusively focused on women’s sports, I’m hyper focused on what audiences want. I’ve taken a deep dive into where sports and media are headed, by 1) leveraging Swerve TV’s first-party data, 2) conducting “Gen Z Sports Decoded,” a research report produced with Toluna and Halford Media Advisory, and 3) having conversations with dozens of sports leaders.
This research is intended to help us understand this demographic better and to provide a roadmap for brands, creators, and advertisers looking to connect with consumers. “Gen Z Sports Decoded” surveyed 2,000 U.S.-based Gen Z respondents (ages 16-27) in the study conducted by Toluna in December 2024 and January 2025, with key input from Swerve executives, Halford Media Advisory, and my consultancy, Coraly Partners.
Gen Z Sports Decoded
From our data, research and expert interviews, three key sports media trends stand out:
Streaming and social are Gen Z’s top viewing preferences.
Gen Z fans of both women’s and men’s sports demand more highlights and more live games.
Gen Z’s favorite sports differ significantly from older generations, with combat sports increasingly dominant.
In talking to and working with sports leaders from a diverse pool – ranging from tennis to women’s basketball to freestyle trampoline to women’s tackle football – it’s clear that the future of media means changing our playbooks to adapt to Gen Z habits. Media leaders increasingly recognize that Gen Z is forcing a rewrite of the old playbooks.
These findings inform the strategies of Swerve TV as a media company and of the leagues that we work with. And they are relevant for all media executives, brands and creatives. Simply put, those who are unprepared or unwilling to adapt will fail to capture Gen Z’s loyalty.
Here are some topline takeaways:
1. Streaming and social habits require new partnership formats
ESPN’s announcement that it will assume control of the NFL Network promises an even-closer tie-up of the two strongest sports brands in the U.S. It also represents an investment in more live sports content designed to drive subscriptions to ESPN’s direct‑to‑consumer streaming platform, which launches on August 21.
While we can expect major sports rights negotiations to remain competitive, ESPN is making a long-term commitment to streaming and social dominance, which closer ties with the NFL will enable. These are critical elements as ESPN strives to secure the loyalty of streaming- and social-first Gen Z sports fans.
Close collaboration between media companies and leagues will become more common. The fragmentation of streaming and social requires that we work together to make sure fans know where to watch what they love. It’s no longer enough to broadcast a game or match live and expect the audience to figure out where to find it. We all have to make sure we’re communicating clearly on every possible platform to ensure that fans can find the live-streaming games they demand.
2. New competition rules drive engagement though action – live and highlights
Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball is a new women’s basketball league that features an innovative scoring system in which athletes score points as a team, and as individuals, to win MVP titles and cash bonuses. INTENNSE is a new coed professional tennis league with simplified scoring that, among other things, eliminates “love” and “deuce.”
Both leagues, and their scoring systems, offer examples of new sports entities incentivizing an action-packed style of play optimized to generate highlights that perform well on social. Encouraging athletes to build monetizable social fanbases and enabling them to compete year-round in startup leagues keeps the action coming for Gen Z fans who want continuous engagement.
At the same time, for a sport such as women’s basketball (in which top players routinely play overseas in the off-season to make ends meet) these new action-oriented formats offer a path to the fair pay they deserve.
Our “Gen Z Sports Decoded” research found that 47% of Gen Z fans watch sports highlights and live games weekly – and that they want more of both. We can innovate to connect Gen Z fans with leagues, teams and athletes, with a goal of delivering continuous engagement with their favorite sports and athletes.
3. The popularity of ascendant sports requires a shift in investment strategy
The least surprising thing that our “Gen Z Culture Decoded” research found is that football and basketball are the #1 and #2 most popular sports, respectively, among our U.S.-based Gen Z sample. However, in a twist that has proven surprising to many, we found that combat sports now rank as the third most popular sport for both men and women.
Our team at Swerve TV witnessed the surging popularity of MMA, boxing, and other combat events reflected in the growing popularity of the company’s flagship channel, Swerve Combat. The channel has grown 215% year over year, with more than 200 live events and 20 million viewers in the U.S. and Canada. But even we were surprised to see that combat outranked baseball, hockey and soccer in this research – including for women.
This surge in combat’s popularity is reflected in the growing competition for WWE and UFC rights among ESPN, Paramount, Peacock and Netflix. These distributors are paying ever increasing rights fees for combat, while showing less willingness to increase investment in more traditional sports such as baseball.
This is a significant shift in investment strategy from long-established sports leaders such as MLB to ascendant sports leaders such as WWE. And it is mirrored by other investment shifts, including a swell of investment in women’s sports, such as Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball and in other innovative startups such as INTENNSE.
Our new women’s sports channel, Swerve Sports, launched this summer with more than 30 partners, reflecting both increased investment in newer women’s leagues but also increased diversity in audience habits. As time goes on, we expect viewership habits to evolve further as streaming and social continue to acquire market share from traditional broadcast and cable distribution, and as Gen Z habits drive change in our industry.
Conclusion
Marketplace trends, Swerve TV’s research, and sports leaders’ evolving strategies all point to a radically different Gen Z-driven sports and media future. These shifts require brands, creators and marketers to be more agile, data-driven, and multi-platform-savvy than ever. We are witnessing a major generational change in how sports are consumed and who can deliver that content.
In short, if we don’t adapt to Gen Z’s habits, we’ll be left behind.
Live sports are undergoing a seismic shift, transitioning from traditional broadcast and cable to a fragmented digital streaming landscape. This transformation promises new revenue opportunities for leagues and media companies. However, it also disrupts everything from game delivery to how fans find and experience their favorite sports events. As rights deals spread across platforms and viewer expectations rise, the sports media landscape faces pressure to innovate and keep pace with a rapidly changing playbook.
Who Is watching and how
According to new research from Parks Associates, 43% of U.S. internet households consider themselves Sports Viewers. Of these, 40% watch sports exclusively through streaming platforms, including subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services, direct-to-consumer (D2C) league apps, and virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) such as YouTube TV. Another 30% combine streaming with traditional TV or antenna-based access.
Sports Viewers spend more on streaming than non-sports fans. Those subscribing to D2C sports apps spend an average of $111 per month across services. The average for Sports Viewers overall is $88, compared to $64 for those who avoid sports content entirely.
Challenges with fragmentation and discovery
Sports programming airs across platforms as leagues strike deals with multiple platforms. Viewers often need multiple subscriptions to watch games across different conferences, leagues, or even within a single sport’s season. Thirty percent of Sports Viewers report being unable to access games because they do not subscribe to the required service.
This frustration compounds as content discovery remains inconsistent. It’s often unclear where a game is airing, on a streaming app, a linear channel, or both. Digital antennas are making a comeback and they offer free access to select games. Approximately 20% of sports viewers use digital antennas today.
Current sports rights landscape, who owns what?
Compounding the complexity is the fact that live rights are spread across multiple platforms and formats:
NFL: Broadcasts are distributed across CBS, FOX (including Tubi for highlights), NBC, Peacock (for Sunday Night Football and select exclusive games), and ESPN. Amazon Prime Video holds exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football. YouTube TV now carries the NFL Sunday Ticket package.
NBA: Beginning with the 2025 season, the NBA has a new 11-year deal with Disney (ABC and ESPN), Comcast, and NBCUniversal (NBC and Peacock), as well as Amazon Prime Video.
NHL: ESPN and ABC, along with TNT (a Warner Bros. Discovery property), currently hold NHL rights, which include both streaming and traditional broadcast components.
College Football: Major networks, including ESPN, FOX, CBS, and NBC, share rights across various conferences. Peacock streams select Big Ten and Notre Dame games.
March Madness (NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament): CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Turner networks (TNT, TBS, and truTV) share rights with streaming through March Madness Live and affiliated apps.
Technical hurdles: latency, buffering, and scale
Delivering live sports via the internet introduces technical problems. Streaming services must deal with latency (lag behind real-time action), buffering (playback interruptions), and scalability (serving millions of concurrent users without crashing).
During Super Bowl LIX in 2025, Tubi had the lowest delay among streamers at 26 seconds, while Fubo lagged by 78 seconds. These variances reflect the trade-offs each platform makes between video quality, compression, and speed.
Advanced video codecs such as H.265 (HEVC) and the newer H.266 (VVC) are gaining adoption to reduce file sizes and improve video delivery. However, many devices still lack full compatibility with these codes, and widespread adoption remains limited.
Interactivity and viewer behavior
Interactive features, such as multi-game viewing, real-time statistics, and in-app betting, are emerging as key differentiators. Fifty-two percent of Sports Viewers use at least one interactive feature. Among viewers under 35, that number jumps to 80%.
Still, the use of interactivity is uneven. Only 19% of viewers place sports bets during a game, though interest rises among fans of MMA, boxing, and rugby. The majority of viewers, particularly older ones, remain focused on watching the live game itself.
Streaming is not a simple replacement for traditional sports television. It brings new opportunities for monetization and fan engagement. However, it also new layers of fragmentation, access challenges, and technical hurdles. While streaming continues to grow, the industry faces pressure to enhance delivery, simplify access, and cater to a broader and more diverse fan base.
The shift to streaming hasn’t just changed what we watch or how we watch, it’s changed everything behind the scenes, too. The premium video playbook has largely been rewritten. And while the audience now enjoys more content and control than ever before, media companies are working just as hard to keep up.
For broadcasters, the challenge can appear especially acute. Unlike streaming-first platforms, broadcasters aren’t digital natives. They are often navigating change while juggling strict regulations, legacy systems, broad audience demographics, and a different media economy. But with the right focus, they can keep pace and also lead. In this article, we explore three areas where broadcasters can take control and future-proof their business and find streaming success.
1. Make the viewer experience the priority
Audiences today have many options to choose from when watching content. While broadcasters still have an edge when it comes to trusted, high-quality content, they can’t afford to take it easy when it comes to UX. The viewing experience – especially the ad experience – can make or break a viewer’s loyalty.
As we’ve seen, advertising is becoming a conduit to access premium video. Viewers aren’t against it; they just don’t want a bad ad experience. Repetitive, irrelevant, or disruptive ads are what turn people away. For broadcasters making their journey into streaming, there are ways to address these issues. Our research at FreeWheel shows that simple steps like managing ad frequency, rotating creative more effectively, and improving relevance go a long way toward keeping viewers engaged.
Tools that smooth out the ad experience can help broadcasters strike the right balance: keeping viewers satisfied while delivering results for advertisers. But it’s not just about tech. It’s also about data. By building stronger first-party data strategies, broadcasters can better understand what drives their audiences’ choices, and how to attract new viewers.
This data can inform everything from better content recommendations to granular ad targeting. It also makes it possible to serve more relevant ads across devices, which matters more than ever as viewing continues to fragment. A data-led approach leads to a viewing experience that feels consistent, relevant, and personal, whether someone’s watching live sports on streaming or catching up on dramas on VOD. That kind of seamlessness builds deeper customer trust, and keeps viewers coming back.
2. Be ready for live, technically and strategically
Live programming has always been a stronghold for broadcasters. Sports, news, and major televised events are all familiar territory. But in the streaming world, live comes with new demands.
When audiences tune in en masse for a live event, there’s no room for error. Spikes in viewership, inventory exclusions, and creative approvals not lining up are just a few of the critical challenges. When they have an impact, it’s not just the experience that takes a hit. It’s also revenue and the value of the inventory.
This is why tech readiness is critical. Broadcasters need the right infrastructure to handle the unpredictability of live events in a streaming environment. That means being able to adjust campaign pacing in real time, ensure creatives are pre-approved and ready to go, and facilitate access to a broader range of advertisers, even those without the optimal tech stack.
Traditionally, programmatic technology has offered an answer to some of these issues. And recent advancements have made it easier to automate and scale ad delivery on live content. Even when viewership spikes unexpectedly, advertisers can still reach their intended audiences, and broadcasters can capture the full value of that demand.
This is where technology and live experience can intersect to create seamless transactions and efficient audience targeting. Broadcasters know how to do live. With the right tools in place, they can now do it better, faster, and more profitably in a streaming world.
3. Streamline access to unified inventory
The push for simpler, more efficient supply paths isn’t new, but with the evolution of the premium video landscape, it has taken on a new meaning. Advertisers want easier, direct access to quality inventory. However, that inventory is now fragmented across screens, channels, and types of transactions. So, while broadcasters have what advertisers seek – premium, brand-safe environments with scalable reach – the trick is making those connections easier in a unified manner.
A streamlined, unified access to inventory doesn’t just help advertisers. It helps broadcasters, too. It enables them to gain better visibility across all demand sources, optimize ad decisions (including pacing and frequency), and reduce friction in transactions. It ultimately unlocks more value across all screens and sales channels.
Bottom line: Focus on the viewer
As the lines between traditional TV and streaming continue to blur, broadcasters who focus on the viewer, live content and unified inventory, can position themselves to lead. Yes, they already have unique advantages, including the quality of the content, audiences at scale and engaged viewers. However, there are other areas that TV stakeholders will need to further work on to compete effectively, not least working together and facilitating access to their inventory.
This is an increasingly important issue which deserves to be looked into separately. Ultimately, broadcast (premium video) quality will continue to be the gold standard. So, it is important that advertisers and their agencies consider these points carefully when planning their media buys.
Entertainment remains one of the most resilient categories in household spending, even as many Americans look for ways to cut back. From concerts and travel to dining out and streaming subscriptions, people continue to seek out experiences that bring joy, escape, and connection.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, consumer spending on recreation services, including streaming, live events, and travel, grew by over 7% year-over-year in Q1 2025. This growth outpaced the overall increase in personal consumption, signaling strong demand for experience-based activities.
But strength in entertainment spending doesn’t mean consumers aren’t anxious. Inflation, recession fears, and rising prices are still top of mind. So, where do consumers draw the line, and what entertainment is worth the cost when budgets are tight?
New findings from Hub Entertainment Research show a notable increase in anxiety among consumers since late 2024, particularly about inflation and the risk of recession. This economic unease is prompting many viewers to reassess their spending on entertainment. Yet, unlike concerts, theme parks, and other one-time events, TV and streaming subscriptions appear relatively resistant to budget cuts and cancellations. Streaming’s staying power comes down to perceived value. Aside from vacations, TV and movie streaming rank above all other entertainment alternatives.
Price sensitivity for streaming subscriptions
Nearly nine in 10 viewers now say subscription prices are increasing more frequently. This sensitivity is prompting some to rethink their spending and consider switching to lower-cost, ad-supported tiers. More than half are willing to spend more on streaming if it allows them to reduce other discretionary entertainment costs.
Ad-supported models are generally becoming more appealing. The share of viewers who say they “can’t tolerate ads” continues to decline, dropping to just 11%, from 17% four years ago. Even among this ad-intolerant group, more are now saying they would prefer to save $4–5 per month by accepting ads, rather than pay for an ad-free experience.
Service aggregators play a key role in keeping subscribers engaged. Platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Roku, YouTube, and Apple TV help users manage their growing number of subscriptions. Half of all viewers now use an aggregator, and among 18- to 34-year-olds, that number jumps to 60%. Those who use aggregators are more likely to hold six or more subscriptions, while those without typically have just three or fewer.
Insert aggregator subscriptions chart
YouTube’s multiple products
YouTube is also an increasingly vital part of the media and entertainment ecosystem. Although many users still watch YouTube content on mobile devices, half of them now stream it regularly on television screens. YouTube’s suite of offerings, including its free, ad-supported content, outperforms both subscription and other free services in perceived value.
Despite its strong position, streaming is not immune to viewer pushback. While consumers rank it as one of the last things they’d cut, that sentiment hinges on continued value delivery. If prices rise too often or too steeply, even loyal subscribers may begin to reconsider.
Mark Loughney, Senior Consultant at Hub, notes that while consumers remain anxious about the economy, video subscriptions are among the last things they’re willing to cut. However, that’s only if streaming services don’t push prices too far.
In short, the data highlight a clear takeaway for both consumers and the industry: streaming remains a cornerstone of American entertainment spending. Its blend of variety, convenience, and value continues to resonate even in a tighter economic climate. Providers that keep prices in check, lean into flexible ad-supported tiers, and make discovery effortless stand to deepen that loyalty. With people’s concerns about the economy continuing to rise, the winners will be services that repeatedly prove one simple equation to viewers: more content, less friction, best value.
For media executives, streaming used to be a thorn in the side of linear TV. Not anymore. With consumers continuing to cut the cord and major players like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney+ finally adding ad-supported tiers to their offerings, streaming has become the new front line of not just TV programming, but TV advertising too.
I was in Cannes a few weeks ago to meet with clients and understand their priorities for the year ahead. We had just come out with a new report on the rise of streaming TV and shared some impressive top numbers with the industry. But, unsurprisingly, they wanted to know where growth was most likely to come from for them.
It’s all well and good that auto, retail, finance, and pharma companies are spending over $1 billion on streaming platforms, they said, but which of those (and a dozen other) industries should they appeal to first? What types of advertisers within those industries might be most likely to respond? And for our media clients with both linear and streaming properties, how should they balance their media sales efforts between streaming and traditional TV?
To kick start the conversation, we decided to use our MediaRadar data to compare what brands have been spending on streaming platforms over the past few years to what they’ve been spending on linear TV. Mind you, not just linear TV but what most consider the bastion of linear TV: NFL broadcasts. The early results are remarkable and might affect how you think about your next media sales pitch.
Why NFL advertisers?
NFL games — and live sports in general — are tentpole events keeping traditional TV alive. However, streaming sports deals are multiplying and starting to lift media companies beyond major broadcasters too. Most football advertisers are in it for the reach and are well entrenched in linear TV advertising. However, many others are starting to recognize streaming as a natural extension of their traditional TV investments and a way to take their targeting capabilities to new heights. We thought that the intersection of those two advertising universes — streaming TV on one hand, and NFL games on linear TV on the other — would offer interesting contrasts and actionable insights for streaming media executives at a crucial time in their platforms’ development.
Another reason why this comparison is interesting is that advertisers spend about as much on NFL linear TV broadcasts ($8.5 billion during the 2024-25 season) as they do across all programs on streaming platforms ($7 billion during those same six months). So we’re not talking about two wildly different media channels with very unique advertising patterns and dynamics. It’s not streaming against the whole of linear TV and its $60 billion advertising market, for instance.
The overlap here is substantial. Figure 1 shows that between early August 2024 and early February 2025 (from the NFL pre-season to Super Bowl LIX), 23% of all the brands in our analysis advertised both on streaming platforms and during an NFL game on linear TV.
Figure 1: Overlap between streaming and linear TV advertisers during the 2024-25 NFL season Source: MediaRadar
Football TV advertisers make clutch streaming partners
Of all the brands that advertised on streaming platforms in that six-month period, roughly half aired commercials during NFL games on linear TV as well. That’s been a fairly consistent picture over the years, as Figure 2 illustrates. The share of brands that advertise exclusively on linear TV has also been shrinking every year.
Figure 2: Share of the number of streaming and linear TV advertisers during the last four NFL seasons Source: MediaRadar
There’s still a long way to go to convince all of those brands to give streaming a chance. However, those that have made the jump already contribute the lion’s share of streaming TV revenues. Figure 3 shows that they represented 23% of all advertisers during the 2024-25 NFL season butaccounted for 64% of all media spend in our analysis (and 87% of all streaming media spend).
Figure 3: Share of streaming and NFL media spend on linear TV during the last four NFL seasons Source: MediaRadar
Move up the chains
What type of brand should your media sales team pursue first? On average, beer & wine brands spent $1.2 million on all streaming platforms from Aug ‘24 to Feb ‘25, but they spent nearly $7.4 million during NFL games on linear TV. There’s plenty of room to grow. During that same period, telecom advertisers spent $2.7 million on streaming and $6.5 million on NFL TV broadcasts. Car manufacturers: $4.5 million and $11.7 million. Figure 4 shows the current gap in media spend for a typical brand in a number of sports-friendly industries.
Figure 4: Average media spend per advertiser during the 2024-25 NFL season (million dollars) Source: MediaRadar
In some sectors like restaurants, pharma, or insurance, streaming budgets are already on par with football budgets on linear TV, but they’re well behind in many other popular sectors. As more NFL games and other sports franchises transition to streaming, there’s a clear opportunity for media sales teams to bring those budgets closer together.
That doesn’t mean that streaming growth will always come at the expense of linear TV, of course. Between Aug ‘24 and Feb ‘25, Modelo tripled its streaming budget (from $4.4 million to $14.5 million) while also increasing its NFL linear TV budget by 20% (from $39.4 million to $47.2 million). But if you want to move the chains for your digital platform, you could do a lot worse than sports advertisers new to streaming and used to spending a lot on TV.
With the 2025-26 NFL season right around the corner, it’s time to study the field and draw up a winning playbook.
Note: MediaRadar’s streaming tracking expanded to include Netflix during H2 2022 and Disney+ during H1 2023. Insignificant variance to the number of streaming advertisers. Analysis not adjusted and reflective of current conditions.
But, unlike a number of other legacy social networks, the platform continues to go from strength to strength. Back in 2022, I argued on these pages that media companies need a dedicated YouTube strategy, a sentiment that remains equally relevant three years on.
Here are six reasons why many media companies need to reconsider the value they attach to YouTube, and six proven tactics to help maximize their impact and approach to the platform.
YouTube enjoys huge reach and engagement
According to the Business of Apps website, YouTube has more than 2.7 billion monthly active users. Over 238 million of these users are in the U.S., the StatsUp site notes. In terms of reach, that makes it either the biggest, or second largest, social network in the world, depending on your source. Either way, it’s a huge audience.
Lastly, engagement dwarves other social networks. “YouTube takes the lion’s share of … social media time,” commentsSimon Kemp, the Chief Analyst at DataReportal. “The world spends almost twice as much time using YouTube as it spends using the platform’s next nearest rival, TikTok.”
Despite this, many publishers continue to treat YouTube as an afterthought compared to shinier, newer, visual-oriented platforms like the aforementioned TikTok or Instagram.
Esra Dogramaci, a digital news executive and YouTube specialist, who has worked for international broadcasters including Al Jazeera, BBC, DW, and others, agrees. “News organizations [and] publishers should have always been paying attention to YouTube,” she told me. “We often forget that YouTube is the second biggest search engine, and [the] world’s largest video platform.”
It’s a core platform for reaching Gen Z and Gen Alpha
Efforts to more effectively engage younger audiences is a key goal for many media companies. It’s no surprise that YouTube can be a pivotal plank in these strategies. Afterall, as Rande Price, VP, Research at Digital Content Next, recently reflected, “prioritizing video formats that are concise, authentic, and visually native to social platforms is essential to reaching Gen Z.”
Data published at the end of last year found that more than seven in 10 Gen Z consumers (71%) discover new media content (such as music, podcasts, and TV series) through YouTube, only just behind social media as a whole (72%).
Moreover, 73% of U.S. teens aged 13-17 (a mix of Generation Z and Generation Alpha, a demographic born after 2010) say they use YouTube every day. According to insights from the Pew Research Center, that means YouTube is “the most widely used and visited platform” among this age group. That includes 15% who said that their use of the platform is “almost constant.”
Short-form video is growing in popularity
There are multiple ways to harness YouTube to attract younger audiences. As Price points out, “tone, pace, and relevance” are intrinsic to this. Those sentiments are applicable to all content on the platform, including YouTube Shorts, an area seeing considerable growth. Last month, Neal Mohan, YouTube’s CEO, revealed that “YouTube Shorts are now averaging over 200 billion daily views!”
That audience isn’t just Gen Z, although they are a significant share of Shorts consumers.
Publisher’s short video strategies therefore should encompass YouTube, as well as TikTok, and Reels on Facebook and Instagram. These formats can also encourage consumption of long-form video, as well as acting as their own, standalone, genre.
“YouTube Shorts is… the ‘take away’ version prior to the ‘dine in’ experience,” contends Dogramaci. She argues that Shorts can serve as a gateway to your main channel especially if it is fully optimized. (For tips on how to do this, read to the end of the article!)
“It appeals to younger audiences with short-form content,” she says, “provided that you’ve done all the housekeeping in terms of channel and video optimization.”
According to Edison, YouTube is the most popular service for listening to podcasts in the United States, ahead of Spotify and Apple. So, if content creators aren’t distributing their podcasts on YouTube, they are potentially missing out.
Furthermore, “YouTube is often the first place people go when looking for a new podcast,” the platform’s blog claimed earlier this year. To aid with this discovery, in May, the company began releasing a weekly chart of YouTube’s Top 100 podcast shows in the U.S.
And as the differentiation between video and audio content continues to blur, Gen Z is driving much of this trend, Edison found. Their research stated that this age group feels that “video provides a better understanding of context/tone through facial expressions and gestures,” and it also enables consumers to feel “more connected to the podcaster(s).”
It’s big on screens of all sizes
Although the smaller screen garners a considerable amount of YouTube consumption, the growth of connected TV’s (CTV) has also been pivotal in YouTube’s continued growth.
That said, the platform is at pains to point out that this isn’t the same as “the ‘old’ television,” pointing to Shorts (which are popular on TV, just ask my kids), live streams, podcasts, sports, and full shows, as part of the platform’s content mix.
Given these findings, in an age of investment in FAST channels (Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television) it’s a reminder that brands and media companies still need to factor YouTube into their video strategies. Its TV audience is simply too big to ignore.
YouTube matters to news consumers
The variety of content on YouTube, and its reputation as a source for entertainment, influencers, and User Generated Content (UGC) can mask its popularity as a platform for news and information. New data from the Digital News Report 2025 emphasizes this. Around a third of their global sample uses YouTube (30%) for news each week, just behind Facebook (36%). Given that weekly usage of YouTube for any purpose stood at 63% this is a high percentage of global digital news consumers using the platform for news.
Source: Slide 15 of Esra Dogramaci’s presentation (see below)
In major markets such as India, the use of YouTube for news stands at more than 50%, an important consideration for international news brands seeking to gain a foothold in the world’s most populous nation. Large news audiences on the platform can also be found in other major emerging markets such as Nigeria, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Brazil.
Making inroads into these markets won’t necessarily be easy for traditional media brands, however, as much of the consumption is centered around what the Report authors refer to as “alternative media voices.” This category includes online influencers and personalities, independent journalists, as well as politicians who can go direct to audiences, by-passing traditional media gatekeepers.
Nevertheless, given concerns about misinformation on YouTube – and other social networks – there are opportunities for trusted news and media brands to meet user needs for news and information. And they are in a position to do so in a manner that also offers the credibility that audiences desire.
Conclusion
YouTube’s reach, variety of content offerings, and resonance with younger and news audiences mean that it is an essential distribution platform for publishers in 2025. Of course, it’s not without its challenges. Around 70% of content is algorithmically recommended, meaning that YouTube’s recommendation engine can divert viewers away from publisher channels to other creators. It can also be very difficult to drive traffic from the site back to your own properties.
Yet, YouTube’s size, versatility, and reach – especially with Gen Z and teens – make it hard to overlook. Whether your goal is audience growth, revenue diversification, or brand-building, a dedicated YouTube strategy will be a must for many content creators. Publishers who invest in understanding and leveraging YouTube’s evolving ecosystem will be best positioned to thrive in the digital content landscape; and the pivotal role YouTube plays in this space.
Bringing it all together: 6 essential tips to successfully implement a YouTube strategy
Esra Dogramaci has been leading teams innovating on YouTube for more than a decade. Her experience includes leading the BBC World Service YouTube channels, through to receiving a YouTube Innovation Grant in 2023. The grant enabled her to develop and iterate on YouTube Shorts, while working as the Managing Editor at SBS, one of Australia’s public broadcasters.
In June 2025, Esra presented a session on YouTube for Changer on behalf of the Google Digital News Initiative on YouTube for busy newsrooms. The presentation is here.
Based on that presentation and our conversation, here are six practical recommendations that will enable media companies to nail their presence on YouTube.
Ditch the “Archive” Mindset: Stop treating YouTube as a mere “archive or simple video upload mechanism,” she says. Many media companies with a broadcast arm fall into the trap of “cutting and pasting TV content onto YouTube.” This material “regularly fail[s] to perform because the audiences are different.”
Meet User Needs: Success on YouTube is “less about volume, and more about understanding your audience and curating an offering that will resonate with them,” Dogramaci advises.
She highlights how former Vox producers Cleo Abram and Johnny Harris use YouTube to illustrate this. They “upload once or a few times a month and their videos will typically perform better” because “they know their audience, so they can engineer their content to perform.”
Presented in a style that “is a far cry from the buttoned down presenter reading your evening TV news bulletin,” their work remains substantial and substantive. It’s not dumbed down and connects with audiences by explaining “why this matters,” or “why you should know,” or “why this affects you.”
Prioritizing the Right Metrics: Don’t get fixated on views alone. “A view can be one second, it can be 10 minutes, it can be the same person watching a clip over and over again.” Instead, Dogramaci advises that the most important performance indicators on YouTube are watch time, subscribers, and active subscribers.
Watch time, representing the “actual amount of content consumed,” is crucial; “the more the better,” as it signals resonance and makes your video more likely to be surfaced.” Think of subscribers as your “loyal fans,” she suggests.
Engineer Every Video for Peak Performance: This means obsessing over the thumbnail, a “shop window” that must entice viewers. Your headline must be catchy, and accurate, supported by keywords, tags, and accurate video descriptions. A great banner, custom URL, and content organized into playlists, are also vital for success.
Embrace Niche and New Formats: The “best performing channels are those that know their audience and don’t try to be everything to everyone.” Even big broadcasters might see that their best-performing content is focused on niches. This content, like Deutsche Welle’s “dress code” series, can be evergreen. In contrast to broadcast, “YouTube content [often] has a much longer shelf life,” Dogramaci says.
Implement Continuous Improvement Don’t just upload and forget. Dogramaci recommends bringing different YouTube teams and channels together to learn from each other. By sharing best practices, Dogramaci helped oversee growth at 20 BBC YouTube channels, akin to “the biggest growth of any off-platform product in those years (300% in watch time and 550% in subscribers).”
In applying these principles, media leaders should avoid simply piling more work onto busy teams. “The bottom line is… always about doing less, just doing it better,” she says.
July 31, 2022 is a historic date for soccer fans in England. It’s the date on which they saw their women’s team win the Euros on home soil, becoming the first senior England side to triumph in a major tournament since the men won the 1966 World Cup. The Lionesses achieved this in front of a global audience of 50 million. Some 365 million people watched some part of the tournament according to UEFA figures, which are the sum of “TV, out-of-home viewing and streaming.”
Three years on, the Lionesses are set to defend their crown in Switzerland next month, and the appetite for women’s sport has never been greater. Whether you’re a broadcast, digital or print outlet, female athletes, the stories around them and the competitions they participate in provide the opportunity to attract new viewers. Revenue can take time to build, but the appetite is there. And, by failing to invest and get involved in the coverage now, there is the real risk of being left out of a crucial growth area that serves as a cost-effective way to get into showing live sports.
Expansion drive in women’s sports
On Tuesday, the Women’s Super League, the top female domestic league in England, announced that it is expanding from 12 to 14 teams for the 2026/2027 season. In the U.S., a peak of 2.8 million tuned in to watch Caitlin Clark return from injury on Saturday as she helped the Indiana Fever beat the New York Liberty. American tennis star Coco Gauff’s win over Roland Garros was watched by 1.4 million, a 94% increase over the previous year.
Francois Goddard, an analyst at Enders Analysis, noted that women’s football received a bump from the 2022 tournament. It looks like the same thing could happen again at the end of this summer too. With this in mind, the moment for companies to strike is now, according to The Athletic’s women’s football writer Megan Feringa. “If anyone is looking at the summer and hasn’t already assembled at least a one-person team, but ideally, more than that, I think they’re going to get to mid-July and think, oh shoot, we are so late on this,” she told Digital Content Next.
There are lots of reasons why women’s sports provide such an exciting opportunity for media companies. To start, while there is some crossover, women’s sports tend to attract a different type of audience from men’s sports, which lends them a family-friendly reputation. “I think we do see that in general women’s sports competitions, fans over index for having children in their households,” says Danni Moore, Senior Analyst at Ampere’s Analysis. This means streamers and TV could bring in the wider family audiences to their service by investing in women’s sports. (And this also offers a fresh and appealing audience for advertisers.)
Rights heat up
Another sign that moving into women’s athletics now makes sense is that the cost of female sports rights is already starting to go up. “The WSL, I think the women’s Bundesliga and the Spanish Liga F, they’ve all gone up,” according to Moore. However, they are still low-cost relative to their male equivalents, which provides a great entry point for streamers looking to get into the live sports game. “Now it’s a good time to get in because they are cheaper,” she says, “but if the prices do go up in the future, [media companies would] be missing that opportunity.”
This all helps explain why Disney+ has become the home of Women’s Champions League soccer in Europe. It has taken the rights previously owned by Dazn for an unknown prize in a five-year deal. ESPN, Disney’s multiplatform sports brand, will produce all live matches for Disney+ with commentary offered in multiple languages, alongside pre- and post-game programming. The broadcasts are set to launch in October, with no additional subscription cost for viewers to access the games.
It’s a good move for Disney, according to Goddard, because the company “needs more content in Europe, more local content and more regular content.”
The pan-European tournament ticks all those boxes. It also allows a platform that has not shown live sport in a mass way before to dip its toe into the water without splashing out huge amounts of cash.
The excitement around women’s sports goes beyond soccer and basketball though. “What if we look at women’s hockey,” says Feringa. “What if we look at women’s softball, cricket, rugby? You’ve got Ilona Maher, who has sort of exploded the rugby scene,” she adds. “It seems inconceivable that people don’t want to jump into this space. It just feels like an obvious win”
Adland’s interest increases
Advertisers are increasingly interested in women’s sport too. In the age of subscriptions and streaming, live sports are still a popular placement for advertising. “This makes it even more attractive as an option for local, regular content,” says Goddard. As with the price of the rights, the cost of advertising against women’s sport is understood to be less than in men’s sports, providing marketers and brands with a way to make their money go further in the sports space.
Rihanna’s brand Fenty Beauty has signed a sponsorship deal with the New York Liberty, the first time it has moved into marketing withing sports and Feringa notes:
“The [National Women’s Soccer League] NWSL and the WNBA have done such a fantastic job in terms of sort of aligning themselves with brands, and vice versa, brands aligning themselves with different sports and different teams.”
With the WNBA continuing to dominate the headlines, the women’s Euro’s set to bring some of the best in the world together. And there’s so much more to come in this booming space. Thus, media companies of all kinds need to think about how they are going to show up for female athletics to capture engaged audiences and advertisers seeking family-friendly fare.
Already, we’re seeing a growing number of media brands introduce targeted coverage for women’s sports – including Associated Press, USA Today, Roku and CNBC. Audiences and advertisers are showing up in growing numbers. But there are still plenty of opportunities out there. For media companies still sitting on the sidelines, now’s the time to get into the women’s sports game or risk being left behind.
The reality of digital publishing means that audiences are exposed to a wider variety of voices. Newspapers compete for attention with Tumblr, Facebook, individuals’ newsletters and countless other sources of information. This requires media companies to periodically reassess their appeal. They must also consider how they can best use new platforms to build audience and revenue.
This has been especially true for broadcasters. Where once their competition for video content might have been a handful of terrestrial channels, they now compete for time and attention with digital video platforms. That has led to concern among commercial broadcasters, as advertisers seek to reach those younger audiences – often at the expense of ad spend on traditional broadcast channels.
Globally, media buyers GroupM predict that linear television revenue will decrease by 3.4% over the course of 2025 as ad spend shifts over to streaming television. And, while linear TV still accounts for a significant portion of viewing, streaming is nearly equal. Millennials and Gen Z viewers are driving the move toward streaming and social video platforms, favoring the flexibility to watch content on-demand and across devices. These factors put pressure on traditional broadcasters to accelerate the shift to digital-first strategies that will satisfy audiences and advertisers alike.
Programs and priorities
The form of video content audiences choose to watch has been altered by new platforms. Short-form video has become the standard for many viewers, particularly those who are spending increasing amounts of time on platforms like TikTok. That’s especially true for younger viewers: fewer than half of Gen Z viewers in the UK watch broadcast television. The 48% that do spend roughly three times as much time watching video on platforms like TikTok and YouTube. In the US the trends are similar: TikTok has roughly ten million more users than linear TV in the Gen Z demographic.
In particular, YouTube is too big for broadcasters looking to recoup those audience and revenue shifts to ignore. When it comes to competition, the video-sharing platform is now literally encroaching on traditional broadcasters’ territory: as of earlier this year more time is spent watching YouTube on TVs as on users’ phones.
That has led to radical shifts in production and distribution strategy. So, how are major broadcasters keeping up with those changing audience habits – and using their expertise to stay ahead of the pack when it comes to taking advantage of new platforms – YouTube in particular?
YouTube: A channel for video discovery
Ashley Hovey is Chief Digital Officer for the CW Network. She explains that YouTube is a priority for the company as it seeks to create new means by which audiences can discover its programs: “YouTube is a part of the broader fragmented media ecosystem, which plays a role in driving audiences that can complement our [owned and operated] platforms. YouTube is a great place for discovery and sampling, while owned properties can drive deeper engagement and brand advocacy.”
That speaks to the need for broadcasters to approach YouTube in a way that does not cannibalize existing video audiences or ad revenue. Despite the headlines, traditional broadcasting still attracts a vast amount of ad spend overall. Thus, it is vital to protect that revenue as broadcasters experiment with new platforms.
A Channel 4 spokesperson affirms that the strategy is to find complementary audiences on the platform, rather than migrating existing audiences over: “The audiences on YouTube are additive. So, it is a great way to direct people to content that we think they’ll enjoy and engage a larger, younger-skewing audience.
“We experiment heavily with the great data that YouTube generates. It is at the heart of everything we do. On YouTube, video distribution and views are as reliant on algorithm science as they are an entertaining format.”
As a result, that discovery flows both ways: through the use of YouTube’s tools – designed specifically for digital distribution – broadcasters are able to find out more about their audiences online. That informs not just ad sales, but commissioning strategy as well.
BBC Studios is the commercial subsidiary of the UK’s first public broadcaster. Its Digital Commercial & Partnerships Director Anaïs González Espinosa explains: “Through the YouTube Content ID tool, we’ve also been able to only not protect our content, which is very important for us, but also use the data as a demonstrator of consumer demand to inform our content pipeline and some of the choices we make.”
Space to experiment
For many broadcasters, YouTube is also a staging ground for new formats. That can range from content specifically created with digital video in mind – such as Channel 4’s upcoming “social-first short-form channel focused on cooking and food.” It also offers an opportunity to repurpose existing content.
Some broadcasters, for instance, upload entire episodes of their stock of programming to YouTube. That can be entire season, series, or “taster” episodes designed to entice viewers to seek out the rest of a season on their owned-and-operated channels. Others, meanwhile, create short highlight videos with the same goal in mind, but geared towards short-form social sharing.
The Channel 4 spokesperson shared that “One area we saw go from strength-to-strength in 2024 was full-episodes on YouTube, with an increase of 331% for UK views in the first nine months of 2024. Key titles that pulled in audiences were entertainment series… and documentaries including Click for Murder and 60 Days on the Estates, plus made for YouTube shows such as Minor Issues and Tapped Out.”
Compared with broadcast television, in which audiences were largely separate, watching from their own sofas, YouTube and other digital video platforms allow more opportunities for viewer interaction. Taking cues from livestreaming specialist platforms like Twitch, YouTube has prioritized live audience chat alongside much of its content. Espinosa says: “We use posts and community tabs to engage with our fandoms, enhancing their experiences with our content on the platform. Views are important but engagement on YouTube is key to success.”
Hovey confirms that the CW Network is also set to experiment with those “live” features soon, as a result of the increased engagement it can deliver.
However, she also notes that the platforms’ other creator-led features allow for experimentation with distribution: “The CW tests out new YouTube features depending on the content type. For example, we use the Thumbnail Test & Compare feature for our sports clips. This allows us to test different thumbnail designs for WWE matches and NASCAR races and helps optimize overall watch time for both.”
With YouTube’s increased focus on AI to translate its content to other languages, and further changes to memberships on the platform on the horizon, there is plenty of scope for broadcasters to continue experimenting. And thy have the added advantage of not needing to invest in those tools themselves.
Considered and careful
Traditional broadcasters, then, are approaching YouTube with both commercial and audience considerations in mind. The platform itself is too big to ignore. In fact, there would be an opportunity cost to not at least have a presence on it.
However, what is especially apparent in 2025 is that broadcasters are being highly considered when it comes to YouTube. It is a competitor for ad revenue, but also a collaborator when it comes to discovering new audiences and new opportunities for engagement.
As a result, broadcasters are constantly reappraising their strategy for publishing to the platform, as ad spend continues to shift and new tools and formats emerge. With the rise of features such as content locked behind memberships and in-app merch stores on the platform, broadcasters have access to new revenue and engagement models via YouTube – and are finding ways to do so without diminishing their opportunities on more traditional platforms.
At some point in 2020, accelerated by the pandemic and the kids using endless hours of TikTok scrolling as a coping mechanism, short-form video surged into a major part of modern media consumption. Even for those of us who grew up on cable TV and later binged on Netflix, Gen Z is reshaping how we discover, consume, and engage with video content. Younger audiences have turned scrollable, snackable video into something so much more satisfying than a Quibi; it’s now a cultural mainstay.
That’s the wake-up call from our latest DCN research, Decoding Video Content Engagement: Gen Z & Gen Y in Focus, a two-part study conducted with Magid. We launched the project last year with in-depth, hour-long qualitative interviews to get a baseline on the latest language and media mindset of younger audiences. We then took a quantitative dive into what we now see as a landmark report for DCN and its member companies. To be clear: the numbers don’t just hint at a subtle shift. They chart a generational rewrite of what video means and what audiences expect it to do.
The headline? They don’t watch. They participate.
Simply put, video is no longer a passive experience characterized by a surge of short-form experiences on social platforms. Our research shows that 92% of Gen Z interacts with video on social platforms at least once a week – liking, commenting, remixing and sharing. But even more striking, nearly two-thirds (64%) of teens aged 13–17 create and post original video content weekly. Notably, this statistic drops materially to 40% for ages 18-22 (the back half of Gen Z). That’s a clarion call for those seeking to understand the expectations of the next wave of digital natives and why we labeled them “The Creator Generation” in this report.
For the youngest Gen Z users, “watching” isn’t a lean back experience. It’s a ticket to creative expression. Video isn’t something they just watch. It’s something they do. This dynamic is upending the traditional hierarchies of content and control. The line between viewer and creator is fading and with it, many of the historic relationships between storytelling, advertising, and brands.
Creators are the new gatekeepers
In the past, a media brand’s value lived in logo recognition and distribution demand. Today, particularly with the youngest audiences, it’s more likely to live in the hands of creators with cultural credibility and fluency. These individual creators are now the benchmark: remarkably they beat out all other creator types in being perceived as more creative, entertaining, interesting, and informative.
These creators are not the typical influencers posting their user-generated content to make a paycheck. They are micro media empires of all backgrounds. And they’re setting the tone for what today’s audience deems engaging, real, and worth watching. All of this accumulates in more trust.
And that trust gap is telling. While 88% of younger audiences trust friends, family, and creators, traditional brands fall significantly behind even though they’re visible. Yes, 93% of Gen Z still says they often see brand content. But awareness isn’t the same as engagement. And in a world where users can scroll past your video in a second (with a paltry three seconds being the magical sweet spot for nearly half of the young users in the research), that difference can be everything.
Authenticity isn’t a bonus – it’s the baseline
If you’re still investing in glossy, highly produced videos that feel like they came from a corporate studio instead of an actual human being – stop. The bar has moved. Individual creators are not major media brands. Think about it: People are flawed. In a world where the individual creator is more trusted, entertaining and engaging, a perfectly pressed and buttoned up production will not resonate like a rumpled shirt and bit of bedhead.
Authenticity is the baseline. When asked what they value most in video content, Gen Z chose originality, honesty, and authenticity far ahead of production value or polish. This generation can smell marketing a mile away and they’ll scroll right past it – teaching the algorithm you aren’t worth their precious time.
Instead, they want content that reflects them: unfiltered, participatory, and emotionally resonant. Think behind-the-scenes looks, first-person storytelling, raw filming, and creator collaborations that feel like a natural fit rather than transactional development deal.
So, what should media companies do?
We know the stakes are high. Premium publishers – many of whom DCN proudly represents – are once again navigating a digital ecosystem shaped by generational shifts, platform upheaval, and algorithmic opacity described to our researchers innocently as “TikTok magic.” However, this moment is also an opportunity.
Here’s how media brands can strategically respond:
1. Design for engagement, not impressions
Simply showing up isn’t enough anymore. Content needs to invite participation. Whether it’s Q&As, remixable challenges, or comment-driven formats, the most successful brands treat viewers like collaborators, not consumers.
2. Co-create with cultural insiders
Want to build trust and relevance? Partner with the creators your audience already respects. Not as brand spokespeople, but as co-storytellers. This isn’t about inserting your brand into youth culture. It’s about amplifying voices that already move your audience.
3. Reimagine platform strategy
TikTok is not YouTube. Instagram is certainly not Facebook (even if it’s the same parent company). And your content shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all proposition. Create native video strategies that reflect the tone, pacing, and expectations of each platform. If you can’t do it everywhere at once in ways that resonate on each platform then pick your platform(s) of choice based on your content, audience and opportunity.
4. Lead with values – and humanity
Gen Z and Gen Y want entertainment. But they also care about who is behind the content. Our research confirms that younger users reward brands that are transparent, socially aware, and human. If your brand voice on social sounds like it was built by a committee, it’s time to revisit the script.
5. Build with the “SHARES” formula
If you want engagement, your video content should tap at least one of the six drivers identified by our DCN research team. Our SHARES formula – which includes Storytelling, Humor, Authenticity, Raw, Engagement, and Surprise – isn’t merely a checklist. It’s a roadmap for emotional connection and engagement.
The future Is participatory
The question isn’t whether Gen Z and Gen Y will continue to redefine video. They already have. The question is whether the larger media industry will listen.
At DCN, we believe that high-quality, trusted content is more important than ever to the future. But trust now resides in how and where you show up, not just what you say. If media brands want to stay relevant, we must not only reflect the values of these generations. We must also create space for them to shape the stories themselves.
Premium media brands like our DCN members have a powerful edge: credibility, creativity, and a direct relationship with their audiences. But competing in this new era of short-form video requires humility, agility, and a willingness to let go of legacy thinking.
