Free Ad-Supported TV (FAST) channels are poised to capture a dominant share of ad spend by 2027, yet at the same time there remains a concern that as TV viewing shifts from linear to streaming, ad dollars may not follow.

These seemingly contradictory findings appear in a new report from research firm TVREV, “FASTs Are the New Cable Part 2: Advertising,” which concludes that the shift of advertising to streaming is “still not guaranteed,” despite huge tailwinds in its favor.

“Outside of the most popular handful of titles, precious little information about streaming series ever makes it beyond need-to-know circles within media companies,” says Rick Porter at The Hollywood Reporter. “Media conglomerates and ad buyers began to get more aggressive about finding alternative data streams to serve their needs.”

Drawing on interviews with CreatorIQ clients, a new report takes a deep dive into the strategies of Netflix, Prime Video and Peacock to achieve unprecedented levels of success.

“It’s nearly impossible for growing brands to succeed without partnerships with influencers,” Chrissy Werner, VP of marketing at Tubular Labs, declares. “Influencers drive commerce and advertising the way traditional forms like TV, radio, and newspapers did for decades. As a collective, creators continue to grow in power and counter media conglomerates worldwide.”

According to digital consultancy Tubular Labs in its research paper “Navigating Social Video in 2023: What you need to thrive,” engaging target audiences is a key objective for many brands, and social video is a “must-have” channel to achieve this goal.

However, the speed at which trends turnover is getting faster and faster. In one three-month period more than 1.3 million sports-related videos were uploaded across multiple platforms. The volume of video uploaded to social sites can overwhelm even the best resourced marketing teams.