Impact of Streaming Services

Amazon's $68 billion ad machine now has access to 190 million Netflix viewers. Here's what it means for advertisers. Amazon's ad business makes $68 billion a year. Now advertisers can target right audiences on Netflix through expanded targeting capabilities via Amazon DSP. Starting Q2 2026, brands buying ads on Netflix through Amazon's platform can now use Amazon's shopping data to target their 190+ million viewers. Think about what this means. Amazon knows what a huge chunk of U.S. households buy, browse, and search for. Netflix knows what they watch. That data is now being combined for targeting. So a skincare brand can target someone who searched for serums on Amazon - while they're watching a show on Netflix. Here's why this matters: → Netflix made $1.5 billion from ads in 2025 and is targeting $3 billion this year  → Early tests are already beating previous benchmarks → A large share of new signups now choose the ad-supported plan. Till now, streaming ads were about showing up in front of millions and hoping it works. This changes that. Now brands can connect what people watch to what they actually buy. For anyone running ads, this is worth paying attention to. Shopping and streaming just became one ecosystem. How do you think this will change the way brands plan their ad budgets?

Amazon just did to streaming what Google did to search in 2005. And most e-commerce brands are sleeping on it. - Here's what changed: Netflix, Spotify, and Roku opened their ad inventory to Amazon's DSP. That means Amazon can now layer a decade of purchase data from 300M+ people over the shows they're watching. Someone buys dog food on Amazon every month → sees your dog food ad on Netflix → clicks their remote → it's in their cart. Amazon closes the loop from ad to purchase. - Why this matters for e-commerce brands: Google knows what you search. Facebook knows what you engage with. Amazon knows what you bought last Tuesday. That's the difference. You're not targeting "people interested in fitness." You're targeting people who bought running shoes 30 days ago. - And here's the unlock for brands: Your ads aren't just on Amazon anymore. They're on Netflix, Disney+, Roku, Spotify, Thursday Night Football - all through one platform. CTV ads (the big screen, 10ft away) and OTT mobile ads (thumb ready, one foot away). - The creative opportunity: Here's what's interesting, CTV doesn't mean you need $100K commercials. The format is opening up creative experimentation: > Cinematic product shots mixed with lo-fi authenticity. > Polished brand moments blended with raw testimonials. > High production visuals + blocky, direct response style. The brands winning early are testing hybrid formats that wouldn't fly on traditional TV but work perfectly on streaming. It's not "make it look like a Super Bowl ad." It's "make it work for someone on their couch with a remote in hand." - Why this moment matters: We've seen this before. Early Google Ads adopters (2005-2010) built moats that still exist today. Amazon DSP is at that same moment right now. Inventory is underpriced. Competition is light. The brands moving now are building the playbook. In 2 years, this won't feel like an opportunity. It'll feel like table stakes. - The move: If you're selling on Amazon and running paid ads, you need to be thinking about this. Because Amazon just turned streaming TV into a performance channel. And the creative that works there isn't what worked on Meta.

Two of streaming’s fiercest rivals just joined forces in a way that could reshape the ad-tech landscape: Netflix is teaming up with Amazon. Beginning in Q4, advertisers across 12 markets — including the U.S., U.K., Germany, Japan, France, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Italy, Spain, and Australia — will be able to buy Netflix’s premium ad inventory directly through Amazon’s demand-side platform (DSP). This means Amazon’s DSP users can now programmatically access nearly every major streaming service, from Disney+ and Hulu to Peacock, Roku, HBO Max, and now Netflix. So why would Netflix — which already partners with The Trade Desk, Google DV360, Yahoo, and Microsoft — turn to Amazon? The answer: tapping into Amazon’s powerful tech stack and unmatched data trove. Let me explain... 📈 On the data side: Amazon wields unmatched commerce data drawn from its retail empire. That data translates into highly valuable targeting signals advertisers can actually use to power ads on Netflix, making campaigns more precise, efficient, and performative. Amazon also layers in clean room technology, helping marketers measure campaigns in a privacy-safe way, reduce duplicated reach, and minimize wasted impressions. 👨💻 On the technology side: Amazon’s DSP is deeply integrated with premium publishers and continues to expand its video capabilities. The platform gives marketers a one-stop shop for managing all of their streaming media buying — not just Amazon Prime Video, but now Netflix too. Importantly, Amazon offers discounts on DSP fees for third-party CTV inventory, meaning in some cases it could actually be cheaper to buy Netflix ads via Amazon than anywhere else. My big takeaway? This deal strengthens Netflix’s ad business by making its inventory easier to buy at scale, while positioning Amazon as the leading hub for connected-TV ad dollars. Together, they’re setting the pace in a streaming race where advertising is becoming just as critical as subscriber growth. And it signals a broader industry truth: the next phase of streaming monetization won’t just come from price hikes — it will come from how effectively platforms can build and sell their ad stacks. https://lnkd.in/esxFXsHH

📺 📲 Ads, Interrupted: Why Streaming Advertising in 2025 Feels Stuck – and How to Fix It 💡 How Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI) Could Redefine the Streaming Ad Experience 😎 Honest confession: Amongst the many things I have spent time on during my career, I have developed a certain number of obsessions around innovating stubborn corners of our industry—from big-picture scenarios to small but impactful product features. The holy grail is something super simple but used by sports fans every day. I haven’t quite nailed that yet. Today I want to focus on ads in sports streaming—ad formats, ad delivery—mostly the front-end side of things. I’ll cover the DSP backend next week. My frustration? Years after digital streaming was born, we’re still stuck with TV-style full-screen interruptions. Streaming has leveled up—fast, smooth, ultra-low latency when needed. But ads? Ads still jolt us back to 2012. They disrupt the action, they don’t adapt to the moment, and creative innovation is stalling. That frustrates everyone. This piece breaks down where the friction really is, how SGAI changes the equation, and why the industry still isn’t there yet. Here’s what’s inside: ➡️ The current challenges for fans, brands, tech teams, and platforms ➡️ The mantle of ad tech — CSAI, SSAI, and SGAI explained ➡️ How SGAI actually works (and the problem it’s solving) ➡️ What SGAI enables — and what it still doesn’t solve ➡️ Real-world SGAI performance stats from 2024–2025 ➡️ Fans first — formats that work and formats that frustrate ➡️ Where innovation still needs to happen in tech, creative, and process ➡️ Platform & media company perspectives on streaming ads in 2025 ➡️ Final scenarios for evolving from interrupt to augment If 2025 is the year streaming ad revenue grows, let’s also make it the year that ads start to belong. Matthias Ankli Bart van Oosterhout Paul Boustead David Miller Dolby OptiView #streaming #ads #adtech #sport

This morning, AdExchanger published an insightful piece highlighting a critical challenge in the Connected TV space—premium publishers increasingly bundling their streaming inventory in opaque ways that limit advertiser visibility. Rather than providing app and show-level transparency within the bid stream—where it can be actioned—advertisers are often left with fragmented, one-off reports that offer little opportunity for strategic optimization. By adopting these black-box models, publishers are inadvertently undermining their own value. Their most significant asset—the premium content they produce—is being devalued when advertisers cannot effectively align their investments with the programming that resonates most with their audiences. The reality is that advertisers are willing to pay higher CPMs for impressions with full content transparency because it allows them to make more informed decisions and, ultimately, drive better performance. This principle has long been the foundation of linear TV, where show-level buying had created a thriving, demand-driven ecosystem rooted in transparency and accountability. At Rain the Growth Agency, we’ve seen firsthand how transparency fuels success in CTV. By leveraging show & channel level data and aligning our digital buying strategies with the programming that has proven effective in our clients’ linear campaigns, we’re driving significant performance gains. And are willing to pay higher cpms than we otherwise might. We’re working with partners like Spectrum Reach, Samsung Ads, fuboTV Network & DIRECTV which provide the transparency needed at the show & network level to make data-driven investment decisions that maximize ROI through our custom algorithms & buying strategies. A notable example is Alexander Groysman at Spectrum Reach, who has led the charge in developing one of the most comprehensive and well-structured content metadata sets in the industry. His work has set a new standard for transparency, enabling advertisers to better understand performance at a granular level and optimize their spend accordingly. As streaming networks attempt to replicate the playbook of tech companies, they risk overlooking a crucial difference: they are not technology companies. They lack the same product offerings, incentives, and advertiser appeal that drive digital platforms’ success. In chasing the tech model, they may ultimately lose what has always differentiated them—high-quality, trusted content that brands are eager to invest in when they can do so with confidence and clarity. Publishers who prioritize transparency stand to gain the most, while those who don't risk leaving money on the table and eroding advertiser trust. It’s time to rethink the approach before it’s too late. Link to article in comments.

Why Most Independent Films Never Make It Past TVOD After working closely with dozens of indie releases over the years — thrillers, dramas, festival titles, I noticed a painful pattern that almost every filmmaker faces: Most independent films don’t break out. Not because of the movie… But because of the marketing. Here are the three biggest reasons why indie films get stuck at TVOD (Amazon, Apple) and never land a deal with a major streamer: 1. Relying entirely on a sales agent or distributor for promotion Most filmmakers assume once the deal is signed, the marketing is handled. It’s not. Distributors prioritize titles with existing traction, existing audiences, or built-in demand. If you don’t bring your own audience, your film gets lost in the catalog. 2. Creating a “dedicated film page” from zero — weeks before release This almost never works. A brand-new page with 0 followers and no posting history cannot outrun platform algorithms. It takes 45 days minimum for a page to start getting delivered to the Explore page consistently. Most indie films don’t give themselves this runway. 3. Not driving engagement inside the TVOD platforms Reviews, ratings, watch completions, and saves on Amazon/Apple matter more than people realize. If your audience isn’t activated to show up inside the platform, your film never climbs the ranking — and never gets organic visibility. And this is exactly why I keep saying: Your own audience is not optional. It’s leverage. It’s the difference between a quiet release and a streaming acquisition. It’s the reason some indie titles break through while others disappear in weeks. If you’re a filmmaker preparing for your next release — build your audience now. Start 60–90 days before launch. Document the process. Show the behind-the-scenes. Warm up your viewers before the film even has a date. Your audience is the only “asset” that follows you from film to film. It’s what gets deals. It’s what gets you seen. It’s what builds a career — not just a release.

𝟲𝟬𝟬 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗥𝗧𝗕. That's the current RTB auction window, and it's the bottleneck holding back AI Advertising. Last week, IAB Tech Lab released the Agentic RTB Framework (ARTF) v1.0, fundamentally changing how #ProgrammaticAdvertising infrastructure operates. In this context, ‘agentic’ doesn’t refer to AI agents; an agent is simply any module operating inside the RTB workflow, whether powered by traditional logic or AI-supported decisioning. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 Most #RTB traffic today jumps across multiple cloud environments. DSPs, SSPs, data vendors on separate infrastructure, connected through HTTP calls. Every hop adds latency. ARTF puts DSPs, SSPs, and data partners in the same "building" instead of different clouds. Co-location cuts response time by 80%, from 600-800ms to 100ms (MarTech, Nov 2025). 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗙 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 Think of #ARTF as a neutral “programmatic building” where every DSP and SSP gets its own locked room. They do not share hardware or code, they are simply placed in the same building so their modules can talk to each other through short internal corridors instead of travelling across the public internet. This proximity is what cuts latency from hundreds of milliseconds to around one hundred without changing each vendor’s architecture. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 Communication happens through faster bidirectional protocols like gRPC. ARTF supports Model Context Protocol and Agent-to-Agent communication, allowing autonomous agents inside the auction workflow. Index Exchange calls this "unlocking sell-side decisioning with precise, real-time, per-impression choices". 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹 Netflix, Paramount Advertising, The Trade Desk, and Yahoo Ads are backing the standard (Adweek, Nov 2025). Faster responses enable richer bid enrichment, stronger fraud controls, lower compute costs. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 OpenRTB isn't going anywhere, but ARTF creates competitive pressure. DSPs and SSPs can opt in, but those who don't migrate face an 80% performance disadvantage. Optional in theory, mandatory in practice if you want to stay competitive. If #AdTech is going to run on agentic workflows instead of static rules, the pipes need to support that rhythm. ARTF is the first production-grade attempt to build those rails. The industry has until January 15, 2026 to provide feedback before final implementation. 𝗣𝗥𝗢: • 80% faster bid responses • Agents operate inside auctions • Real-time decisioning finally possible 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗥𝗔: • Who controls the infrastructure? • Vendor lock-in risk increases • Privacy governance still unclear 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸?

Indie films as magnets. They have a lot of up front value. Streamers use films to pull new people through the door. Series keep them around later. That’s the behavior shift the EU data makes clear. binge drops create volume, weekly drops create anticipation, and films act like audience magnets. Let's dive deeper into Film i Väst streaming report and what that means for you as a filmmaker. On average, a movie reaches more unique accounts than a show (roughly 358,000 per title, about 19,000 more than series in the same window). That matters even if you never pitch a streamer. Why? Because the dynamic is the same on YouTube or a micro-streamer, a single, strong film is the hook; everything else you make benefits from the lift. Position it as discovery. Pitch it as the front door. Treat your feature like the sharpest thumbnail in the house, built to be clicked, shared, and talked about. If a platform needs reach and you can deliver reach at a fraction of series cost, that’s leverage. If you’re staying DIY, the logic still holds, your film is the magnet; your channel, shorts, BTS, and next project ride the wave. Make the thing that pulls people in. Let the retention come later. That’s how a small film “travels”, first as a magnet, then as momentum. The most surprising part of the EU report wasn’t the 30% local-content rule, it’s that “local” turned into strategy. Spain is the clearest example. nearly half of the top-viewed titles in 2024 were Spanish. More interesting, those Spanish titles didn’t stay home. They showed up in other countries’ top lists (double digit share in Italy, strong presence in France and Germany). Local stories traveled because they were specific, not because they were sanded down to be “universal.” That flips a common indie fear on its head. If you’re making a film in Kentucky, you don’t have to pretend you’re making a film for “everywhere.” Go deeper into where you are. Texture, dialect, food, weather, work, rituals. The stuff that feels too particular is exactly what reads as authentic across borders. Audiences don’t need generic, they need truthful. Streamers have even built strategy around it, local stories, global impact. So write the scene only your town could produce. Cast the person who sounds like your county. Shoot the location that would never be a backlot. Then ask the global question, will this feeling translate? Make it unmistakably where you are. Ironically, that’s how it goes everywhere. - - - Do you want to dive in deeper? ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/dwe5wFxv

The Amazon Ads x Disney Partnership Is Powerful But Disney’s DRAX Is What Makes It Measurable Premium inventory is great. First-party data is better. But real-time outcome measurement? That’s what makes the difference and that’s where Disney’s DRAX steps in. Through DRAX (Disney Real-Time Ad Exchange), advertisers accessing Disney+ and Hulu inventory via Amazon DSP can now measure performance with the kind of precision that was once exclusive to walled gardens. Here’s what that means for brands and agencies: 🎯 Live Streaming Campaign Data DRAX gives near real-time visibility into how your streaming TV ads are performing—impression delivery, pacing, frequency, and audience overlap across Hulu, Disney+, ESPN, and more. 📍 Granular Reporting by Region, Device & Demo You’re not just getting “views” you’re seeing which audience segments, which screens, and which markets are driving real engagement. 📊 Advanced Attribution Models Disney’s DRAX helps connect CTV impressions to downstream outcomes: Brand lift studies Website traffic spikes Location-based store visits Even product page interactions especially when layered with Amazon’s first-party commerce data 🤝 Connected Planning Across Disney and Amazon With both platforms aligned, marketers can plan once and measure across the entire path to conversion: from Hulu ad exposure → to Amazon product views → to purchase. 🛠️ Integrated with Clean Rooms Want privacy-safe, multi-platform measurement? DRAX can push data into clean rooms, giving large advertisers a way to connect dots without compromising security. This isn’t just about buying premium inventory anymore. It’s about seeing how every dollar performs in environments people trust and making real-time decisions based on the outcomes that matter. Disney’s DRAX + Amazon DSP isn’t just a media play it’s an attribution engine built for modern performance marketers. #DisneyDRAX #AmazonAds #StreamingTV #CTV #AdTech #CleanRooms #HuluAds #DisneyPlusAds #AmazonDSP #LambosDigital

I don't think about Startups AdTech as much as I should when it comes to GenAI. I talk constantly about foundation models, inference costs, and training clusters. But some of the most interesting GenAI disruption is actually happening in AdTech. My take on it is that the industry got so complex that humans can't optimize it manually anymore and GenAI is coming along at just the right time. I kicked off an AdTech Executive Briefing in London this week with 15 C-level execs from across EMEA and three things stood out: 1. Creative economics are collapsing. What used to cost $25K-$100K per campaign in production and talent fees is now $2-$15 per variation. That's not a 10x improvement — it's closer to 1000x. For startups competing against agencies with massive production budgets, this is the great equalizer. 2. Agentic campaign management is real. Not "AI-assisted" — actually autonomous. Multi-agent frameworks that handle bidding, targeting, creative rotation, and budget allocation without a human in the loop. 3. Supply-side optimization is getting smarter. Publishers are using ML to dynamically select demand partners, reduce ad request duplication, and optimize yield in ways that weren't possible even two years ago. A couple of startups stood out. Both are French. Both are building on AWS. Adagio is rethinking the sell-side programmatic stack. They've built demand path optimization that helps publishers cut through the noise of duplicate ad requests and dynamically route to the best demand source. It's the kind of infrastructure play that doesn't make headlines but fundamentally changes the economics of how publishers monetize. Stamp (wearestamp.com) is building a marketplace that aggregates streaming TV ad inventory across publishers into a single buying surface. CTV is exploding — but the buying experience is still fragmented across dozens of platforms. Stamp is trying to be the connective tissue. Cannes in June should be interesting this year.