NEW YORK—In a landmark agreement to overtake the burgeoning connected TV (CTV) advertising market, Amazon Ads and Roku today announced a new integration that gives advertisers access to the largest authenticated CTV footprint in the U.S. exclusively through Amazon DSP.

The new collaboration, according to the two companies, will deliver logged-in reach to an estimated 80 million U.S. CTV households, representing more than 80% of those homes, according to Comscore data. The exclusive partnership will connect viewers tuned into The Roku Channel, Prime Video, and other CTV streaming services on Roku and Fire TV operating systems; as well as streaming services from Disney, Fox, Paramount, Tubi and Warner Bros Discovery; and all premium publishers.

Early tests of the integration showed that advertisers reached 40% more unique viewers with the same budget and reduced how often the same person saw an ad by nearly 30%, enabling advertisers to benefit from 3x more value from their ad spend, the companies claimed.

The CTV advertising market is the fastest-growing segment of TV advertising, expected to top $33.5 billion in 2025; however, the majority of ads are still viewed on linear TV. Prior to the announcement, Roku already had the largest share of CTV devices on the market at 38%, more than twice that of Amazon’s Fire TV platform (18%), and far ahead of Apple (13%), Samsung (12%), LG (5%) and Vizio (5%).

But competitors are not sitting still; in April, Samsung launched its Creative Canvas interactive ad service, the first TV manufacturer to offer an in-house interactive ad format. Also in April, LG Ad Solutions announced a new integration with Amazon Publisher Services (APS) that enables marketers to access expanded advertising inventory on LG Channels, LG’s free streaming service available on all LG Smart TVs.

(Read: CTV: TV's Latest Gold Rush)

In addition to giving Roku and Amazon a leg up on competitors Google, Disney and Comcast, the companies said the joint venture will unlock an addressable CTV audience at such unprecedented scale, that it "will drive improved performance, planning, optimization, and measurement for all advertisers, further enabling CTV as a true performance solution."

“Our exclusive partnership with Roku is a giant leap for advertisers, bringing best-in-class planning, audience precision, and performance to TV advertising,” said Paul Kotas, senior vice president, Amazon Ads. “The collaboration enables agencies and brands that use Amazon DSP to benefit from greater efficiency and higher performance. We’re removing the guesswork to provide advertisers with unprecedented capabilities and delivering performance in ways that simply weren't possible before. By combining our technologies, advertisers can now drive full-funnel campaign outcomes—from awareness through conversion—while eliminating media waste across Amazon and Roku streaming audiences.”

The integration utilizes a custom identity resolution service, allowing Amazon DSP to recognize logged-in viewers across the Roku OS and devices in the U.S. This exclusive capability enables advertisers to reach the same viewer deterministically across different streaming channels and devices, providing more accurate audience targeting and measurement than previously possible, according to the companies.

“For years, Roku has been committed to delivering performance-driven, open, and interoperable solutions that provide visibility and accountability for advertisers. Our partnership with Amazon strengthens this mission, as Amazon DSP exemplifies these principles,” Roku Media President Charlie Collier said. “This collaboration delivers a unified, future-ready solution at an unprecedented scale, one designed to drive measurable outcomes by unlocking performance across CTV. With nearly half of all TV streaming time in the U.S. happening on Roku, and the power and depth of Amazon in retail and beyond, together we’re uniquely positioned to prove performance and differentiate DSP offerings for our shared advertisers and marketers.”

The new solution will be available in the U.S. to all advertisers that use Amazon DSP by the fourth quarter.

NEW YORK—Even though TV watching has been up in 2020, when it comes to pay-TV subscriptions the numbers are historic in the wrong kind of way. According to a report from eMarketer, cable, satellite and telecom TV providers are on pace to lose the most subscribers ever in a single year in 2020.

By the end of the year, eMarketer is projecting that 31.2 million U.S. households will have cut the cable cord in aggregate. In addition, 6.6 million households are expected to cancel their pay-TV subscriptions. Projecting down the road, eMarketer estimates that a third of U.S. households will have cut the pay-TV cord by 2024.

This brings the total number of U.S. households with cable, satellite or telecom TV packages down to 77.6 million, down 7.5% year-over-year, the biggest drop ever, per eMarketer.

“Consumers are choosing to cut the cord because of high prices, especially compared with streaming alternatives,” said Eric Haggstrom, eMarketer forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence. “The loss of live sports in H1 2020 contributed to further declines. While sports have returned, people will not return to their old cable or satellite plans.”

In relation to the loss of subscribers is a drop in traditional TV ad spending. eMarketer projects that the total ad spend for traditional TV in 2020 will be $60 billion, representing a 15% drop year-over-year and the lowest total since 2011. There is expected to be some rebound in 2021, but eMarketer estimates that TV ad spending will remain below pre-pandemic spending until at least 2024.

Haggstrom forecasts that ad spending will instead shift to digital video.

For more information, visit eMarketer’s full report.

NEW YORK—When 2019 comes to a close, Netflix will still be the most popular OTT streaming service in the U.S., but it isn’t all sunshine and roses according to a new report from eMarketer. Netflix will have 158.8 million viewers of the 182.5 million people using OTT services in 2019 (87%), and yet its share of the market has declined as other services, most notably Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, have made inroads.

In 2014, Netflix had a 90% share of the streaming market. Now, even as its subscriber base is expected to grow from 158.8 million this year to 177.5 million by 2023, its share of the total market is expected to continue to decrease to a projected 86.3% in 2023.

Hulu is one of the streamers taking the biggest bite out of Netflix’s share. Estimates from eMarketer expect Hulu to reach 75.8 million viewers in 2019, 41.5% of the subscription OTT market and a 17.5% growth in viewers year-over-year with 2018—though that is down from the growth Hulu say in 2018, when it shot up 49.6%.

Amazon Prime Video is slated to remain the second most-popular service behind Netflix, with 96.5 million subscribers (52.9% market share). OTT subscribers across all of the services account for 55.3% of the U.S. population, says eMarketer.

“The market for streaming video has been driven by an explosion in high-end original content and low subscription costs relative to traditional pay TV,” said Eric Haggstrom, eMarketer forecasting analysis. “A strong customer appetite for new shows and movies has driven viewer growth for services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, as well as the broader market.”

That appetite will continue to be satiated with the launches of new streaming services from Disney (which also owns Hulu), Apple and NBC Universal, which will all start to earn their own shares of the market. Haggstrom concludes that the biggest challenge to Netflix may come from Disney.

“While there is no true ‘Netflix killer’ on the market, Disney’s upcoming bundle with Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ probably comes closest,” he said. “Netflix’s answer has been to stick to what made it the market leader—outspending the competition on both licensed and original content, offering customers a competitive price.”

For more information, the full report is available here.

NEW YORK—The gap between pay-TV and cord cutting in the U.S. continues to narrow, and in the next few years it could disappear entirely, according to a new report from eMarketer.

In 2019, eMarketer is estimating that the total number of pay-TV households in the U.S. will drop 4.2% to 86.5 million. On the flip side, the number of cord cutters is expected to grow 19.2%. If the rate of decline holds steady, pay-TV services will fall below 80 million households by 2021, while one-fifth of U.S. homes will have cut the cord. A little further down the road, the report predicts that by 2023 the number of pay-TV households will come in at 72.7 million and that 56.1 million will be without a pay-TV package.

Satellite providers are expected to take the biggest hit in these declines, with an estimated 7.1% of household subscriptions ending this year. Telco and cable are expected to see declines of 4.6% and 2.4%, respectively.

One of the causes for this decline, according to eMarketer, is pay-TV providers prioritizing profit over revenues.

“As programming costs continue to rise, cable, satellite and telco operators are finding it difficult to turn a profit on some TV subscriptions,” said Eric Haggstrom, eMarketer forecasting analyst. “Their answer has been to raise prices across the board, and it seems that they are willing to lose customers rather than retain them with unprofitable deals.”

While the decline of pay-TV services continues in the U.S., other studies find that pay-TV services are still a popular choice of customers in emerging markets around the world.

Additional findings in the eMarketer report include that the time spent watching traditional TV is also in decline. Total TV watching is expected to drop 3% to three hours and 40 minutes on average, with all age groups showing decline, but it is especially heavy among those 17 and under.

NEW YORK—For the first time, digital ad spending is expected to surpass traditional ad spending in the United States, according to the latest forecast from eMarketer.

Nearly all forms of traditional ad spending will be in decline in 2019, including TV, which is expected to drop by 2.2 percent. That drop will bring TV’s ad spending revenue to $70.83 billion. One contributing factor is believed to be the lack of a major event like an election or the Olympics. The 2020 presidential election should propel TV ad spending back into the positive, but it is once again likely to again in following years.

Total digital ad spending in the U.S. for 2019 is projected to be $129.34 billion, which would represent a 19 percent growth and 54.2 percent of the estimated total U.S. ad spending. The most prominent form of digital ad spending will continue to be mobile, accounting for more than two-thirds of digital ad spending at $87.06 billion for 2019.

Also a first in eMarketer’s report, Google and Facebook’s combined share of revenue for digital ad spending will drop by less than a percentage total, but their revenue will still grow for the year. Amazon’s growth is the big contributor to that, as its U.S. ad business will grow more than 50 percent this year and its share of the U.S. digital ad market is estimated to grow to 8.8 percent.

As digital ads surge, practically all traditional forms of advertising are dropping (save for out-of-home). Overall, traditional ad spending will be down to a total of 45.8 percent from 51.4 percent in 2018, with the decline of directors (19 percent) and print sources (17.8 percent) the hardest hit. Down the road, eMarketer predicts that by 2023 digital will represent more than two-thirds of total media spending.

MONTEREY, CA–Cable and satellite TV providers continue to shed subscribers as the rate of cord-cutting accelerate in the third quarter, according to several new research reports.

According to MoffettNathanson, more than 1 million viewers severed their subscriptions to cable and satellite TV services in Q3, the most ever in a quarterly earnings period. The four largest U.S. pay-TV providers--AT&T (DirecTV), Comcast, DISH and Charter lost 887,000 subscribers in the quarter, with the satellite TV providers taking the brunt of the loss.

Media Research firm Kagan released similar figures, noting that cable lost 1.1 million subscribers year-to-date so far, their worst performance at the three-quarter mark since 2014. Satellite providers lost 726,000 subscribers in Q3 and traditional telco subscriptions fell by 94,000, with Verizon alone shedding 63,000 subs alone during Q3. The current number of multichannel video program subscribers stands at 91 million, including 88.2 million residential customers, according to Kagan.

Kagan’s quarterly analysis now includes total virtual multichannel subscriptions from services such as Sling TV, DirecTV Now, Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV and PlayStation Vue. The combined virtual platforms gained an estimated 2.1 million subs in the trailing 9 months, compared a decline of 2.8 million in the traditional segment.

Leichtman Research Group reported a loss of approximately 975,000 subscribers for the pay-TV market in Q3 compared to a pro forma loss of 410,000 in Q3 2017. Among “skinny bundles,” LRG focused on those provided by AT&T/DirecTV and DISH, noting that its Sling TV and DIRECTV NOW services added only 75,000 subscribers in Q3, compared to about 530,000 net adds in Q3 2017. This was the fewest in any quarter since their debut.

Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. noted the danger such trends mean for DBS providers in particular.

“Satellite TV services had more combined net losses in 3Q 2018 than in any previous quarter,” he said. “These net losses were largely driven by corporate strategies focused on acquiring and retaining more profitable subscribers (as well as a programming carriage issue between DISH and Univision). A related emphasis on improving the profitability of the satellite TV company’s Internet-delivered flanker brands reduced net quarterly adds in the segment, resulting in vMVPDs not helping to mitigate overall pay-TV losses to the degree they had in recent quarter

In addition to lost subscription revenues, cord-cutting is hitting pay-TV’s advertising base as well. eMarketer recently downgraded its TV ad revenue estimates for 2018, decreasing the rate of growth to just .5 percent to $71.65 billion, down from the previously estimated $72.72 billion. eMarketer predicts that TV’s share of total media ad spending in the US will drop to 34.9 percent, and is expected to fall below 30 percent by 2021.

A new forecast from eMarketer finds the loss of traditional pay TV subscribers in the United States is accelerating as the number of people who have cut the cord and continued without cable, satellite or IPTV service will climb to 33 million this year.

That’s some six million more cord-cutters than eMarketer predicted in July 2017, the company said.

[Read: Global Online Media Usage To Surpass TV, GroupM Says]

“Most of the major traditional TV providers [Charter, Comcast, Dish, etc.] now have some way to integrate with Netflix,” said eMarketer senior forecasting analyst Christopher Bendtsen.

“These partnerships are still in the early stages, so we don’t foresee them having a significant impact reducing churn this year. With more pay TV and OTT partnerships expected in the future, combined with other strategies, providers could eventually slow — but not stop — the losses.”

At the same time, the popularity of OTT services like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu continues to grow. An increase in the number of original programs and demand for multiple services is driving the growth, eMarketer said.

“Consumers increasingly choose services on the strength of the programming they offer, and the platforms are stepping up with billions in spending on premium shows,” said Bendtsen.

The availability of live TV packages delivered over the top without the need to install hardware or incur associated fees are also a factors, he added.

More information is available on the eMarketer website.

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NEW YORK—Consumers are still cutting the cord in large numbers according to a recent report from eMarketer. By the end of 2017, eMarketer is predicting that the total number of U.S. consumers that will have cut the cord will total 22.2 million, up 33.2 percent from the 16.7 million in 2016.

In addition, the “cord-nevers”—consumers who have never had pay TV—are also forecasted to grow this year, reaching a total of 34.4 million, a 5.8 percent growth year-over-year. Looking ahead to the next few years, eMarketer sees the cord-cutting trend continuing to the point where by 2021 the number of cord-cutters will almost be equal to the cord-nevers, somewhere around 41 million.

“Younger audiences continue to switch to either exclusively watching OTT video or watching them in combination with free TV options,” said Chris Bendtsen, senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer. “Last year, even the Olympics and presidential elections could not prevent younger audiences from abandoning pay-TV.”

Pay-TV, meanwhile, appears to be on the decline per eMarketer’s report. A total of 196.3 million U.S. adults are expected to watch pay-TV in 2017, which is down 2.4 percent from 2016. By 2021, that number could fall nearly 10 percent. The age gap is they key difference, as pay TV viewers 55 and above are expected to rise during the forecast period, but every other age group is predicted to decline.

Paul Verna, an eMarkter principal analyst, says factors contributing to the acceleration of cord-cutting includes the fact pay-TV operators are increasingly developing streaming platforms; networks like HBO and ESPN are launching standalone subscription services that don’t require a cable subscription; and digital players like Hulu and YouTube delivering live TV channels over the internet.

Less time is being spent in front of the TV too, with the average time spent watching TV (excluding digital) for U.S. adults falling to three hours 58 minutes, reportedly the first time the average has dropped under four hours. Digital video consumption, meanwhile, is on the rise, increasing 9.3 percent to an hour 17 minutes average a day.

See the full report, including how this is affecting TV advertising, on eMarketer’s website.

NEW YORK—While the emergence of over-the-top services is clearly on the rise with an expected 181 million people in the United States in 2015 watching OTT videos, it is one of the original services that remains the most popular. YouTube remains the most popular OTT video service among viewers, though other services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon are also on the rise, according to a recent study from eMarketer.

The eMarketer study forecasts the growth of OTT videos in the U.S., which nearly nine in 10 digital video viewers already access. One of the primary reasons of that is YouTube. YouTube will see an audience of 170.7 million monthly viewers in 2015, or 94.3 percent of OTT users.

However, the other services are seeing a fast growth. Netflix is expected to grow 20 percent this year, to a total of 114.3 million viewers, or 63.2 percent of OTT users. The streaming service is expected to hit 71.7 percent of the market by 2019.

Hulu and Amazon both currently see less in total number of viewers, but eMarketer predicts the services to match, or even surpass, Netflix’s rate of growth. Hulu is projected to reach 82.2 million viewers by 2019, while Amazon will reach 88.6 million.

OTT can be accessed through a PC or other Internet-connected devices, but is most prevalent on smart TVs or other Internet-connected TV setups. More than a 140 million people are expected to use connected TVs in 2015, according to eMarketer.

To see the full report, click here.