Key Live Streaming Ad Tech Trends for 2025
How will ad tech and ad experiences evolve for large-scale live sports streams in 2025? Is current architecture up to the challenge? Expert opinions vary dramatically, as we learn in this heated debate Streaming Media Connect featuring Paramount’s Jarred Wilichinsky, Victory+’s Narendra Nag, Index Exchange’s Rob Hazan, and FanServ’s C.J. Leonard.
Leonard mentions that she has been a fan of VR for a long time, but she still believes the technology has some way to go until it is ready for prime time. She says that one of the biggest questions at hand is when streaming will fully surpass linear broadcasting, and she then opens the panel for a broader discussion about the key live streaming ad tech trends for 2025.
Victory+ bets on making sports free through ad-supported streaming
Nag says that Victory+ has made a bet on the idea that all sports should be available to watch for free. “[This] also means that we've made a bet on ad tech on how we can monetize sports content using advertising,” he says. He mentions that they are experimenting with attempting to only make some matches available on streaming, while also comparing the performance between airing some matches on both streaming and linear. Another experiment they are making, he says, is moving fully into producing some games.
Linear TV still dominates in sports viewership, but the gap is shrinking
Wilichinsky of Paramount emphasizes that linear TV still dominates sports viewership. “Think about the Super Bowl we did in January,” he says. “[We] had over a hundred million people. It was record-breaking. The vast majority of it was still on traditional linear viewership from a Multichannel Video Programming Distributor (MVPD), or a virtual MVPD.” He says that while the Paramount+ stream of the Super Bowl also broke records, there remained a big gap between those numbers and linear. However, he notes that this gap is shrinking.
Why consumer confidence in streaming major sports events must improve
Hazan of Index Exchange says that, at present, many users still are wary of risking technical issues if they attempt to stream an important game rather than watch it traditionally. “People still kind of default to the set top box or whatever is that's going to work,” he says. “You don't want to take a risk on what might be the most important game of the year for you. I think that's a confidence thing [and] we're going to keep on building trust in the audience base, [that] it's going to be reliable and you're not going to miss the game.”
The current state of advancements and challenges in ad tech
Hazan also outlines his opinions on the current effectiveness of ad tech in streaming. “Ad tech is pretty reliable at being able to return ads, [but] maybe not fill up every available position,” he says. “Maybe you'll still see some slate here and there, but at least we'll be able to reliably say [that] we're not crashing streams. We're able to return demand, [and] we're able to make every impression opportunity available to a buyer to bid on. I think we're getting closer to that stage.”
Wilichinsky agrees with Hazan that ad tech is progressing. However, he argues that ad tech is notably lagging behind with the move of major sporting events into the streaming space. “The users are running, [and] I want to say we are kind of like the two- or three-year-olds. We're crawling, we're walking-ish, but we're not able to move fast enough just on handling the scale of the events, let alone the ad selection of those events and the feedback loop because a lot of this stuff is still display ad tech-based, not a hundred percent video.”
Join us in February 2025 for more thought leadership, actionable insights, and lively debate at Streaming Media Connect.
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