Future of TV Briefing: How the TV, streaming and digital video industry spent its summer (2025 edition)
By Tim Peterson • September 3, 2025 •
This Future of TV Briefing covers the latest in streaming and TV for Digiday+ members and is distributed over email every Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET. More from the series →
This week’s Future of TV Briefing recaps a summer during which the future of TV began to bore many more shades of its past.
- The summer TV turned back the clock
- NFL flags Nielsen measurement issues, Amazon adds Peacock, Netflix’s ‘algorithm movies’ and more
The summer TV turned back the clock
Growing up, summer was a time of transformation. Kids would come back from the break with different heights and hair styles. The same could be said for the TV, streaming and video industry this past summer — only the new looks aren’t all that new.
Sure, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery — and to a lesser degree, the TV news network formerly called MSNBC — underwent major corporate transformations. But considering how streaming is undergoing a change that resembles a return to the high-priced TV bundle, it remains to be seen to what extent the companies are charting a new course versus returning to a familiar trajectory. I mean, the name for WBD’s streaming-and-studios spin-off is Warner Bros.
What will be interesting to see is whether Warner Bros. comes to regret spinning off its cable TV networks (and whether Paramount’s new parent Skydance Media opts to keep the formerly Viacom TV networks). As much as NBCUniversal’s cable network carve-out seemed to set off a trend of companies exiting the traditional TV business to center themselves around streaming, streaming has come to resemble traditional TV. Cases in point:
- Disney is folding Hulu into Disney+, effectively aggregating itself.
- ESPN and Fox finally launched standalone streaming services aimed at cord-cutters, but those services are also available at no extra charge to Charter’s pay-TV subscribers, effectively putting them on par with their linear versions.
- NBCUniversal is selling Peacock subscriptions through Amazon’s Prime Video Channels program that aggregates streaming subscriptions a la a pay-TV provider.
I don’t mean to downplay the debuts of ESPN Unlimited and Fox One. ESPN becoming fully available to cord-cutters and cord-nevers is a watershed moment. But it’s a bit watered down by the fact that it’s become nearly as expensive as traditional TV and is actually less cost-effective when you consider the long-tail cable TV networks (and actually watch any of those channels).
Believe me, I did the math.
To subscribe to the ad-free Disney-Hulu-ESPN Unlimited bundle plus ad-free HBO Max plus ad-supported Peacock plus ad-supported Paramount+ plus Fox One costs $101 per month (not including promotional rates). By comparison, Spectrum’s basic pay-TV package costs $120 per month (not including promotional rates). Yes, the Spectrum package only includes the streamers’ ad-supported tiers, but it adds in AMC Networks’ AMC+ and TelevisaUnivision’s ViX, plus a bunch of cable TV networks that may or may not go unwatched.
That’s not to shill for Spectrum. I actually opted to stick with a la carte streaming subscriptions rather than reconnect the cable cord. But in a year when those streaming services have each inevitably gone through one or two price hikes, I’m betting I’ll be back to the bundle.
Which is kinda my point about what transpired this summer. I mean, look at this year’s TV advertising upfront. Sure, sports has always been a focal point of annual haggle. But this year it felt like the only point of the haggle. And OK, between the ESPN Unlimited and Fox One launches plus Amazon Prime Video and Peacock adding NBA games, streaming added a new dimension to the sports side of the marketplace. But did it really? Upfront ad buyers treated the sports side of the marketplace the way they always have, with streaming simply being an additional inventory source.
And don’t get me started on the measurement side of the upfront. Actually, do. This was the year that the TV ad industry transitioned to a new measurement currency. Except it’s still a Nielsen measurement currency. And ad agency and TV network execs still have issues with how Nielsen is managing its measurements. Again, what’s new isn’t all that new.
Even the newest aspect of the broader TV, streaming and video industry is coming to resemble its legacy counterparts. By that I mean creators. Some creators are spinning up free, ad-supported streaming TV channels – a trend cable TV network owners got in on a handful of years ago. And then others are parlaying their YouTube success into Netflix deals, like how Issa Rae turned her YouTube series into an HBO show more than a decade or how Abbi Jackson and Ilana Glazer turned their YouTube channels into a Comedy Central series also more than a decade ago.
Meanwhile, brands are moving more money toward influencer marketing, which is making influencers into more of a mature media channel. To the point that influencers are upping their fees, agencies are agitating against the increased costs and marketers are pressing for more proof that their investments are paying off. I mean, if that doesn’t sound like the streaming ad market of the past two years and the TV ad market before it…
What we’ve heard
“Co-viewing is inaccurately measured, especially for big events. If you think about the Super Bowl, for instance, where they’re showing a co-viewing factor of 2.4, it just makes no sense.”
— NFL chief data & analytics officer Paul Ballew on Nielsen’s co-viewing measurement during a call with reporters on Sept. 2
Numbers to know
$10 million: How much Disney will pay to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission children’s privacy lawsuit over videos the media giant posted to YouTube but did not label as made for children.
40%: Percentage tax credit that Apple TV+ show “Stick” will receive in exchange for moving production to California.
>70: Number of publishers and creators that are part of LinkedIn’s BrandLink video ad revenue-sharing program.
What we’ve covered
Three signs the creator economy is at an inflection point for marketers:
- An ecosystem is building around influencer marketing.
- As creators’ fees increase, brands and agencies are beginning to push back.
Read more about the creator economy here.
The creator economy wants to be a mature media channel, but measurement is holding it back:
- Influencer marketing lacks a standard measurement system for brands to appraise their spending against.
- Some agencies are developing proprietary measurement frameworks to evaluate influencer marketing campaigns.
Read even more about the creator economy here.
How Gabriella Gomez built a six-figure career on TikTok Live without signing sponsorship deals:
- The TikTok creator averages 250 hours of livestreaming per month and has earned $766,000 through TikTok’s live gifting feature since June 2024.
- Gomez has roughly 345,000 followers on TikTok.
Read more about the TikTok creator’s career here.
What we’re reading
NFL flags Nielsen measurement issues:
The sports league has alleged that the measurement provider is “systemically undercounting” viewership, joining a chorus of complaints against Nielsen as it fully switches to its big data plus panel measurement system, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Amazon adds Peacock to resale program:
People can now subscribe to NBCUniversal’s Peacock through Amazon’s Prime Video Channels program, making Disney+ and Netflix the major remaining holdouts, according to Bloomberg.
ESPN’s parent company has sued the streaming pay-TV service for including the sports TV network in a bundle of channels that people can subscribe to for one day at a time, according to Deadline.
The Trade Desk’s CTV platform:
Yes, The Trade Desk is still planning to roll out its CTV platform called Ventura, despite the demand-side platform’s difficult year and the platform’s lack of fanfare, according to Variety.
The Guardian has coined a term that describes Netflix’s film fare that previously would have felt right at home on a cable TV network’s Sunday afternoon programming block: “algorithm movie” (I call them “laundry movies”).
