5-Star Marketing Advisors, LLC

???? Variety (3/18): “But the most interesting data point about Super Bowl viewership was about streaming: Of those that streamed the game rather than watching on broadcast, one-third tuned in via Tubi. Tubi also attracted a different demographic than other platforms, with viewers skewing slightly female and being 38% more likely to fall within ages 18-34 than the game’s overall audience. Overall for the month of February, Tubi made-up 2% of all viewing time on U.S. TVs, its best performance since July of last year and a 17% increase from its January total. The most-watched programs on broadcast TV after the Super Bowl (and pre- and post-game programming) were the “Saturday Night Live” 50th anniversary special with 16.5MM viewers on NBC and the Grammys with 16.2MM viewers on CBS. Additionally, drama series made up 27% of all broadcast viewing in February, a 15% increase from the month before, led by “Tracker” and “Matlock” with 10.6MM and 9.4MM viewers, respectively, on CBS. On cable, the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off championship game was the most-watched program with 9.3MM viewers on ESPN, while Fox News dominated the rest of the category with the remaining 13 of the top 14 telecasts.” ???? #superbowl #streaming #ctv #ott #tv #avod #svod https://lnkd.in/erCChVkH

???? Nielsen Gauge (3/18): “A record-breaking 127.7MM viewers watched FOX’s broadcast of Super Bowl LIX, including a simulcast streamed on Tubi (FOX’s free streaming service), which clearly resonated with consumers and further illustrated how cross-platform distribution has materialized into real world success. While previous Super Bowls have offered alternative streaming options, Tubi’s free and subscriptionless features provided a means for the Big Game to reach even more viewers. As the game aired live, Tubi represented a third of all streaming usage and multiplied its audience to nearly 16X its January 2025 average. Viewers that watched Tubi during the Super Bowl were 38% more likely to be 18-34 than the total game average, and also skewed slightly female. Overall, Tubi’s February usage was up 17% over January to finish with 2.0% of total TV watch-time, its largest share since July 2024. Following typical seasonal trends, time spent watching television decreased from January to February. Streaming was least impacted, however, and the category gained 0.9 share points versus January to account for 43.5% of total viewing time this month, marking its largest share of the TV viewership pie to date. By comparison, broadcast (21.2%) and cable (23.2%) combined to account for 44.4% of TV in February. Time spent watching YouTube on TV in February was up 2.5% versus last month to represent 11.6% of total TV viewing—a record for YouTube and the streaming category overall. Additionally, nearly 27% of time spent streaming in February was dedicated to watching YouTube.” ???? #livetv #superbowl #streaming #upfronts #ctv #ott #svod #tvos #smarttv

???? Nielsen (3/18): The Gauge has spoken. Back to work. #youtube

???? AdExchanger (3/13): “Live sports broadcast rights are the surest bet for streamers to grab market share and reach audiences that are watching TV at the same time, rather than binging hand-picked shows on demand. Not to mention recent changes in the national sports zeitgeist – like the rise of women’s sports and the growth of challenger sports like pickleball and Formula 1 – are bringing new, valuable audiences into the mix. But streaming media gives advertisers more flexibility in terms of creative formats and interactive promotions, or controls across multiple touch points and channels, said Wendell Scott, SVP of sales at Disney. “Streaming allows for more than a 15- or 30-second commercial,” Scott said. Advertisers can lean into that time and do something interesting with it, he said, while also reaching audiences with different formats and video lengths in different platforms. Streamers are also looking to capitalize on the behavioral signals captured in digital streaming environments, which aren’t available in linear TV. For example, Fubo – which is in the process of being acquired by Disney – has a wider look at user viewing behavior because it aggregates content from multiple broadcasters, said Dina Roman, SVP of global ad sales and operations. And because its audience is fully logged in, she added, it’s easier to surface those insights to advertisers. “We’re able to watch how the consumer moves through our platform, and that throws off a lot of interesting data,” she said. However, most buyers are aware of the data-driven targeting opportunities available in CTV by now, one agency buyer said. The next frontier is to master creative personalization and new quality metrics like attention measurement and understand how audience engagement ties back to the publisher’s content.” ???? #marchmadness #ctv #ott #avod #tvos #fast #streaming https://lnkd.in/eH_37A6V

???? DIGIDAY (3/12): “Considered second only to the Super Bowl on the U.S. annual televised sporting calendar, last year’s NCAA tournament drew an average of 9.07MM viewers across CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV. The men’s (on TBS and TNT) and women’s finales (on ABC and ESPN) garnered 14.8MM and 18.9MM viewers respectively according to Nielsen, an 89% rise for the latter. It was the first time more viewers had chosen to watch the women’s game. As well as a chance to capitalize on the growing popularity of women’s basketball, the tournament’s a chance for brands to expand their use of CTV and streaming ads. Advertisers adopting streaming as a means of reaching sports viewers (and throwing incremental budget at it) has been one of the standout media stories of recent years. Paramount expects its Paramount+ streaming platform, which is among those carrying March Madness coverage, to reach profitability this year, per its annual report (Paramount+ ad revenue was $574MM, a 9% annual rise). The gradual increase in inventory, especially the portion available to buy programmatically, has helped open up sports for advertisers like Andersen Windows. Following a small experimental campaign bought via PMP in 2024, it’s running a nationwide campaign during March Madness. The advertiser has split its TV budget down the middle, assigning 50% to linear, and the remainder to CTV and streaming platforms Max, DirecTV Stream and Warner Bros. Discovery’s March Madness live streaming app. It’s also using paid search and paid social, including Facebook and Instagram. “The old playbook might have been to do a big TV buy and then surround it with digital,” said one buyer. “We’re flipping that script.” ???? #marchmadness #ctv #ott #streaming #livelinear https://lnkd.in/e2SyEz2U

???? The Hollywood Reporter (3/6): “The Night Agent continued its run as the top streaming series in the United States in early February. The Netflix spy drama captured 1.52B min of viewing for the week of Feb. 3-9, the show’s 3rd straight week in the top overall spot. Though it fell off by about 48% from the previous week, The Night Agent’s viewing total was still well ahead of the 2nd-place show, Netflix’s Sweet Magnolias (1.07B min). On the week of the Super Bowl — which recorded a record audience on Feb. 9 — overall streaming volume was down some, at least among the top shows. The 10 titles in the week’s overall Nielsen rankings combined for 9.27B minutes of viewing, down from 10.87B a week earlier (a decline of about 15%). NCIS ranked sixth overall for the week with 834MM viewing minutes across Hulu, Netflix and Paramount+. That marked the show’s 201st week in Nielsen’s overall streaming top 10 — 50 more than the next most frequent entrant, Grey’s Anatomy. Hulu had a particularly strong showing in the ‘acquired series’ rankings: Eight of the top 10 shows got at least some of their viewing time from the Disney-owned platform, and four (Bob’s Burgers, Family Guy, The Rookie and American Dad) are exclusive to Hulu. Nielsen’s streaming ratings cover viewing on TV sets only and don’t include minutes watched on computers or mobile devices. The ratings only measure U.S. audiences, not those in other countries.” ?? #streaming #top10 #ctv #ott #avod #svod #tvos #fast https://lnkd.in/eiQ3bUYn

???? DIGIDAY (3/4): “The pitch is simple: Complete TV gives AI-powered recommendations to help TV buyers optimize their spending across Prime Video and other premium streaming publishers. They do this by inputting their campaign details and target audiences, and, in theory, Amazon’s machine-learning models take care of the rest, allocating spend in real-time across both linear and streaming TV. For marketers, this kind of automation tackles a persistent industry headache: delivering on upfront commitments in full. Historically, shifting audience behavior, inconsistent measurement and last-minute inventory fluctuations have made it difficult for advertisers to spend exactly as planned. So much so, in fact, that they often find themselves scrambling to move money into the scatter market to fill shortfalls — or worse, wasting budget on redundant reach. Amazon is positioning Complete TV as the fix for those inefficiencies. This wealth of first-party data allows Amazon to offer advertisers a granular understanding of where their audiences are, what they’re interested in and when they’re most likely to convert. Complete TV uses that intel to optimize ad placements in a way that few competitors can match, particularly as traditional identifiers like third-party cookies become obsolete.” ?? #streaming #fullfunnel #upfronts #ctv #tv #ott #avod https://lnkd.in/ejJ5PM6v

That time of year! #freewheel #curation #live #qps #avod #programmatic #biddable

???? Deadline (11/22): “Plex, a streaming service with a loyal following and a unique blend of music, film and TV content and user libraries, is overhauling its user interface. The company said in a blog post it is previewing the new look on mobile and will soon roll it out across connected TVs. The public release of the new interface is slated for early 2025. Plex says it has more than 25 million global users, who access 50,000-plus on-demand titles along with more than 600 live TV channels. Along with the combination of music and video programming, Plex has also carved out a niche for consumers who maintain their own personal libraries but don’t want to surrender them in the more arbitrary streaming era. Rather than relying on the monthly cycles of comings and goings on many subscription services, Plex allows collectors to maintain their libraries on the same platform where they access live TV or find titles on demand. “ ?? #ctv #streaming #ott #mobile #fast #avod #vod https://lnkd.in/eFePMnnZ