Top 4 Trends Advertisers Should Expect for the Streaming Ecosystem in 2023

With improved audience targeting capabilities across digital video and CTV device penetration at an all-time high, Advanced TV is set to become even more advanced in 2023. The siloed streaming landscape is beginning to course correct, and digital video’s future looks bright.

Even though global ad spend is expected to slow in 2023, CTV continues to be a bright spot. The continued excitement around CTV should come as no surprise. CTV’s perfect marriage of addressable, data-driven technology and reach presents a golden opportunity for advertisers looking to build brand visibility in highly engaged, addressable environments.

As we ring in 2023, we can expect more universal standards to drive ad buying efficiency in the streaming landscape, ad-supported content to win greater market share, and addressable inventory to become more available. Here’s a closer look at how the streaming market is set to shift in 2023 and how digital advertisers stand to benefit.

Walled Gardens With Windows.

As CTV continues to mature, more advertisers are embracing the efficiency of programmatic buying, driving a 31% YoY increase in open programmatic CTV ad spend, according to Pixalate.

With the rise in programmatic CTV we’ll see transparent, universal industry standards rolled out across the fragmented streaming ecosystem.

Walled gardens have felt the ripple effects of this, driving the need for greater transparency and interoperability in their practices. While walled gardens aren’t going anywhere, the way advertisers buy into them and measure campaign performance will likely evolve to become more standardized. This is good news for marketers: access to insights regarding ad performance gives brands more control and the ability to optimize campaign outcomes.

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The Future is Ad-Supported.

2023 marks a seismic shift in the CTV landscape: ad-supported platforms (AVODs) and free, ad-supported services (FASTs) are winning dominance over subscription-based platforms (SVODs) for the first time. Former SVOD juggernauts such as Netflix and Disney+ are changing their playbooks to offer ad-supported tiers, driving greater advertiser investment to AVOD channels overall.

This marks a significant shift in audience priorities: it’s clear that consumers and platforms are embracing the value exchange between audiences and advertisers. In fact, according to a recent Samsung Ads consumer survey, we found that nearly 75% of viewers would switch to a free or lower-cost tier of a streaming service when given the option.

As FASTs present a win for all parties, we expect a rapid rollout of new AVOD and FAST tiers in premium SVOD platforms in 2023 to match consumer demand. Meanwhile, channels that can provide actionable insights, campaign measurement, and audience data will set themselves apart in the growing streaming ecosystem.

Game Streaming Matures.

With 66 percent of Americans of all ages and backgrounds playing video games regularly, the addressable market for game streaming presents a massive opportunity for brands. In fact, YoY growth of gaming audiences set new records in 2022, with Samsung identified a +21% increase YoY in the number of gamers using their Smart TVs in the U.S.

Gaming’s rise is powered by highly active audiences, who are driving significant revenues. According to Statista, worldwide video gaming market revenues are expected to surge to 298.20 billion U.S. dollars by 2027, ballooning by nearly a third in the next five years. Notably, the streaming digital segment accounts for the majority of the gaming market.

With the size of the gaming community increasing and the time spent in-play also growing rapidly, any plan that excludes gamers is incomplete. Now is the time for advertisers to embrace non-traditional, data driven solutions to reach this key audience effectively.

Smart TVs Redefine How the Largest Screen in the Home is Used.

In 2023, Smart TVs will become the go-to device for more than just video viewing. As game streaming matures and metaverse and Web3 experiences arrive on the big screen, Smart TVs are positioned to become the preferred gateway to interactive digital experiences. Looking forward, we can expect to see online shopping and digital art displays becoming everyday experiences on Smart TVs as well.

Such interactive inventory is highly attractive to marketers. According to the IAB’s Outlook Survey, 61% of marketers are actively investing or considering investing in retail marketing network (RMN) advertising. Meanwhile, 56% of marketers are looking to invest in metaverse ads. As brands explore more immersive environments and new ways of relating to audiences, video advertising will become more interactive.

Looking toward the new year, while the world looks to overcome challenges of a possible recession, the digital video advertising industry will remain robust. CTV and retail media will continue to win a greater slice of the advertising pie as more traditional media, such as broadcast subscriptions, will continue to fall. As streaming platforms become more dominant, a data-driven approach to digital video will be essential for media platforms and brands to capture streaming’s full potential.

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