Internet advertising revenues hit a record $225 billion in the U.S. in 2023, a 7.3 percent increase, according to a PwC report for the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). The connected TV and audio categories saw double-digit growth, as did spending on e-commerce platforms, classified “retail media,” which rose 16.3 percent year-over-year, reaching $43.7 billion in 2023 as key players expanded their ad inventory. Video advertising revenue climbed 10.6 percent year-over-year, to $52.1 billion, with 42 percent of that revenue generated from CTV and OTT streaming. Continue reading IAB: U.S. Digital Advertising Hit Record $225 Billion Last Year

Microsoft’s LinkedIn social business platform has joined forces with NBCUniversal to enter the connected TV advertising market. At its B2Believe customer event in New York, LinkedIn unveiled three new offerings — LinkedIn CTV Ads, LinkedIn Premiere with NBCUniversal, and Live Event Ads. Advertisers can get their creative in front of the LinkedIn audience against streaming content on connected TVs with LinkedIn CTV, target U.S. decision makers across NBCUniversal’s premium CTV content with LinkedIn Premiere and promote corporate live events before, during, and after with Live Event Ads. Kantar and iSpot are offering measurement insights. Continue reading LinkedIn Gets Advertisers Connected with CTV, NBCUni Deal

Comscore and YouTube have expanded their partnership by integrating Comscore Campaign Ratings (CCR) with YouTube Shorts and In-Feed inventory, making available a range of additional ad data specific to those outlets, across connected TV, mobile and desktop. In the months ahead, the toolkit will also add measurement of Masthead inventory. YouTube has been connected to CCR for standard video inventory and YouTube TV since Q4 2021. YouTube Shorts is a fast-growing part of the Google-owned video ecosystem, averaging over 70 billion daily views, according to YouTube and Comscore. Continue reading YouTube, Comscore Integrate Campaign Ratings with Shorts

Ad tech platform Vibe has raised $22.5 million in a Series A funding round led by venture firm Singular. Vibe plans to use the funds to “continue building a more efficient streaming TV advertising ecosystem and become the No. 1 connected TV ad resource for small and midsize businesses,” or SMBs. Vibe, which calls itself the “Google Ads of streaming,” says its technology “radically democratizes access to streaming TV advertising for SMBs with an easy-to-use ad platform mimicking the power and ease-of-use of Google or Meta, but for CTV and OTT.” Continue reading Ad Firm Vibe Looks to Serve as the ‘Google Ads of Streaming’

As the number of free ad-supported streaming TV channels continues to grow, FAST services are outperforming more traditional linear television and CTV when it comes to capturing and keeping consumer attention, according to two separate studies — one from Samsung, the other from Vizio. Samsung Ads’ report, “Decoding FAST: A Comprehensive Guide to the Free Ad-Supported Streaming Landscape,” reveals that the number of FAST services — among them Fox’s Tubi, The Roku Channel, Paramount’s Pluto TV, Vizio’s WatchFree+ and Samsung TV Plus — has tripled in the past four years, as consumption has grown. Continue reading Consumers More Attentive to FAST Channels Than Linear TV

Consumer Technology Association VP of Marketing & Communications Melissa Harrison moderated a CES discussion about the evolution of the connected TV (CTV) from the point of view of marketers. Hisense USA Senior VP of Brand Marketing David VanderWaal noted the pandemic’s impact on TV viewership. “In 2020, 47 percent of people reported watching movies on TVs; in 2023, it’s now 64 percent,” he noted. “More people want to have big screen entertainment.” At digital marketing firm The Trade Desk, Executive VP and CMO Ian Colley reported that 2023 was the “tipping point” for more people watching streaming rather than linear TV. Continue reading CES: Marketers on the Future of the Connected TV Ecosystem

AMC Networks has begun rolling out an ad-supported version of its flagship AMC+ streaming service. Initial availability will be on AMC’s own direct-to-consumer platform and apps, with third-party platforms and channel providers added in the coming weeks. Priced at $4.99 per month, the ad-supported tier includes less than five-minutes per hour of sponsored messages and the same content that comes with the $8.99 per month ad-free plan (or $83.88 annually). Chief Commercial Officer Kim Kelleher says the new product offering is “bringing ads to the only piece of our distribution ecosystem that wasn’t already ad-supported.” Continue reading AMC Offers a New Commercial Tier for Its Streaming Service

YouTube is increasingly popular among connected TV (CTV) viewers who no longer turn to the social video service only for music videos or one-off skits. YouTube says that in the U.S., 65 percent of CTV watch time is on content that is 21 minutes or longer. The shift has prompted the Google-owned platform to change its approach to display advertising. The company is experimenting with longer but fewer ad breaks and limiting creator control with regard to ad placement on new videos. A new countdown timer more prominently displays the time until an ad ends or can be skipped. Continue reading YouTube Connected TV Popularity Prompts Ad Break Testing

Ad tech company DoubleVerify is launching the DV Attention Lab, a new measurement system designed to provide advertisers with more accurate engagement data, an alternative to cookies that the company says will help prevent third-party fraud. More than 50 data points power DoubleVerify’s Authentic Attention metrics, which analyzes ad exposure and consumer response analyzing campaign effectiveness in real time. “Disruption from regulatory shifts to cookie deprecation is hindering how brands can use existing tools. With that in mind, we are confident that privacy-friendly attention metrics will become the industry’s new performance currency,” DoubleVerify CEO Mark Zagorski says. Continue reading DoubleVerify Offers Brands New Way to Measure Campaigns

YouTube’s Brandcast presentation at the TV upfronts focused on the platform’s massive consumer reach, popular influencers and technology solutions. In a Tuesday evening presentation at New York’s Imperial Theatre, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki messaged that now “YouTube is the mainstream,” a contention supported by Nielsen findings that in October the video streamer reached about 230 million U.S. viewers 18 and older. Leveraging sisterly synergy, the company unveiled a new ad frequency cap that lets marketers use Google Ads to set limits on how often ads will stream to specific IP addresses, which has ramifications for services beyond YouTube. Continue reading Upfronts: YouTube Promotes Talent, Google Advertising Tech

Surveys indicate the continued acceptance of Connected TV with advertisers, programmers and viewers, making it the fastest growing advertising platform. While this has largely been the result of housebound audiences during the pandemic, future growth is projected to be strong. A Leichtman Research Group survey shows more than 80 percent of TV households possessing at least one connected TV device (higher penetration than cable TV), which translates to 4.1 devices per CTV household. Study results also reveal that 39 percent of adults watch streaming video daily, with 60 percent streaming weekly. Continue reading Streaming Surge Makes CTV Video Top Ad Growth Platform

Nielsen is relaunching its streaming measurement solutions as a single suite of ad-supported and subscription-based services that now captures 100 percent of activity across content, ads and platforms, the New York-based ratings and analytics firm says. Embattled of late after decades as measurement’s gold standard, Nielsen says its new emphasis on one-stop streaming measurement comes as U.S. consumers “now spend over a quarter of their total TV time” streaming. The new suite aims to give content creators, platforms, studios and advertisers a detailed look at who is streaming, what they’re watching, when and for how long. Continue reading Nielsen Claims New Suite Captures 100 Percent of Streaming

Analytics firm Pixalate has announced $18.1 million in growth capital for connected TV and mobile advertising initiatives. The new round brings total capital raised to $22.7 million for the 9-year-old firm, which specializes in fraud prevention, privacy protection and legal compliance via offices in Santa Monica, Palo Alto and London. The move comes as Pixalate rises to meet the challenges of enterprise clients fending off bot attacks, ad fraud and other malicious threats. Malware incursions by intruders like Puppeteer siphon tens of millions of dollars in annual ad revenue, according to Pixalate. Continue reading Pixalate Raises $18.1M to Combat Click Tricks and Ad Fraud

YouTube, YouTube TV and Google TV inked new TV data agreements with Comscore and Parrot Analytics. Comscore said its cross-platform service Comscore Campaign Ratings will incorporate YouTube and YouTube TV measurement to provide data on those platforms across desktop, mobile and connected TV, to help advertisers and agencies “better understand co-viewing for YouTube and YouTube TV across OTT/CTV.” YouTube and Google TV also added Parrot Analytics’ global audience demand data and entertainment consulting services. Continue reading YouTube TV, Google TV Ink Data Deals with Comscore, Parrot

Advertising on Connected TV (CTV), otherwise known as Over-the-Top (OTT), is a hot topic for advertisers who want to get their messages on any device, including TVs that can be connected to the Internet. According to eMarketer, upwards of 40 percent of the world’s population are “digital video viewers.” But advertising on CTV has enough pitfalls to discourage marketers from embracing it. During a CES 2021 session, DoubleVerify chief executive Mark Zagorski and chief product officer Jack Smith enumerated the challenges and proposed solutions. Continue reading CES: Advertisers Need Better Measurement to Embrace OTT