In case you’re wondering, “Wait, doesn’t Amazon already have a free ad-supported platform?” — yes, Freevee still lives, though the industry is now questioning its survival in the wake of Amazon’s ad-tier announcement. TVREV Co-Founder and Lead Analyst Alan Wolk expressed confusion but ultimately considers it a strategic move by Amazon to eventually draw in more paying viewers. “I suspect that most people who watch Freevee are not even aware they are watching it, [but Amazon can sell ads across both Freevee and Prime Video,] increasing the odds an advertiser can hit a target.”

In this interview with Jason Damata, Founder and CEO at Truthset, Scott McKinley, explains why he started the company, and how it uses a Data Collective to provide ad buyers, sellers and users of large scale consumer data, with visibility into how accurate their data is to produce better business outcomes.

The NFL’s two nail-biting conference championship games on Sunday delivered large TV audiences for the league – and of course, network partners as well. Data from Inscape reveals the extent of the NFL’s big day, and how it even managed to top last year's watch-time.

Each week, we highlight the most-watched shows and networks using insights from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Welcome to our weekly snapshot of TV by the numbers, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks for January 22-28, with insights from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Freevee “has always been an odd duck,” TVREV co-founder and lead analyst Alan Wolk told IndieWire. “I suspect that most people who watch Freevee are not even aware they are watching it.”

However, advertising can also add a layer of creative complexity to content production as well, as noted by a lead analyst at TVREV, Alan Wolk, in a column on STV. “When you’re making shows for subscribers, you have a lot of freedom as to where you can go creatively. When you need to convince brands to run ads against those shows, there’s a whole new set of criteria you have to be aware of,” wrote Wolk.

I think the combination of everything is an ad network plus there's no such thing as national advertising, everything is local. The combination of the two of those coming together I think are really exciting. What's driving all that is data, and then how does that translate to reaching audiences?

How our customers are going to use our data and innovate around our data using artificial intelligence, how internally VIZIO and Inscape is going to use artificial intelligence to innovate and advance our technologies, and then the last thing is how AI is going to have a positive impact on the user and the user experience, and in particular in the TV industry.

“AI is going to be a huge game-changer,” says TVREV co-founder and lead analyst Alan Wolk. He coined the term “FAST” for free ad-supported television during its infancy as an outlet for digitized longtail and legacy content that FAST channel providers were discovering could enjoy a second or third life as commer­cially viable media, thanks to the improved tar­geting opportunities available through OTT

Data from Tubular Labs shows the WWE was the No. 2 U.S. sports media & entertainment creator in Dec. 2023, with over 117 million unique viewers across YouTube and Facebook.

A December analysis of the streaming industry by CreatorIQ reveals that Amazon’s Prime Video was the only service that actually saw an increase in Earned Media Value (EMV) compared to November. EMV is CreatorIQ’s metric for quantifying the estimated value of consumer engagement with digital earned media.

Each week, we highlight the most-watched shows and networks using insights from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching). Here's a look at the top 25 networks by viewership share for January 15-21 — head over to TVREV to see the program ranking and get insights about the top shows by watch-time.

Welcome to our weekly snapshot of TV by the numbers, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks for January 15-21, with insights from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

There was much more bad news to report. Ratings were down, prompting media analyst Alan Wolk to claim “ Cable News Is Dying” and then-Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi to diagnose the business’ “ looming existential crisis.” Financial Times columnist Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Richard J. Tofel, a former executive at the Wall Street Journal and ProPublica, agreed, as did the conservative American Enterprise Institute’s Christen Rosen. Even Carlson, now divorced from the medium that had made him a star, was detecting a “ limited future” for cable.

From my vantage point, and from our vantage point at Madhive, I really get excited about the convergence of local and national. You know, I think that the white space between the two is starting to converge, where national is seeing ways that they can become more local in the way that they target, in the way that they identify, the way that they get their outcomes.

ADAM BERGMAN (VIZIO ADS): How we talk about business outcomes is the thing I'm most excited about this year. A CPG company wants to sell a tube of toothpaste; the QSR wants you rolling through the drive-thru and coming in-store. Whether you're on the buy side, sell side, ad technology, big data, whatever it is, we need to be talking about what an actual brand wants to achieve with a real consumer.

Although the NFL has started experimenting with having some games only available on streaming, the sport continues to absolutely crush it for linear TV, especially with the playoffs in full swing.

Welcome to our weekly snapshot of TV by the numbers, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks for January 8-14, with insights from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

“While most of humanity is benefitting from the shift to streaming, sports fans are sort of fucked,” says Alan Wolk, cofounder of the media analysis firm TVREV. “It’s like, ‘Where do I watch the game? Where is it? Do I have to subscribe to this new service now that I don’t really care about? And I don’t even know where it is.’ And all that. There’s a lot of anger.”