Looking Forward: Industry Insights into the Coming Year in Media Delivery, Consumption and Management
In the second of TVBEurope’s special features looking at expectations for the year ahead, we focus on media delivery, consumption and management
Dave Dembowski, SVP global sales, Operative
We have seen two major trends emerging in the last year. The first is based on the rise of “linear streaming”, a new way of selling inventory on streaming content that blends the elements of linear sold ads, with digital distribution. Media companies are selling this inventory as linear spots – up front and using fixed placements – rather than selling these premium placements programmatically. Media companies are taking the best of linear sales and dynamic ad serving and blending these capabilities into a new strategy that will define the future of streaming. We are also seeing AI dramatically improve workflows for media companies, driving efficiencies around data aggregation and enabling them to surface revenue driving insights faster.
Linear streaming in particular is part of the larger land grab for rights to stream live events. Giant digital and broadcast players are competing for top tier sports streaming as the crown jewel of their portfolio. These bigger companies are looking to smaller media companies to gain longer tail content and incremental reach.
In 2025, we expect that the big media companies will not only buy up content companies but also invest in technology to support these massive multi-channel products. They’ll need to unify their sales and workflows, optimise next-generation packaging and proposals, and sell content and audiences to brands that want to be everywhere.