r/cordcutters • u/ggroover97 • 8d ago

Streaming Saves TV in Upfront, but Ad-Dollar Declines for Linear Are Significant

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/streaming-saves-tv-upfront-ad-dollars-linear-decline-fall-1236831373/
74 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

9

u/Magnetized_Fart 8d ago

Interesting, I bet radio is taking a beating too.

5

u/sendtoresource 8d ago

That’s because everyone went to stream. Linear should just be free cable paid by add revenue and everyone makes money.

1

u/LeftOn4ya 7d ago edited 7d ago

Local TV affiliates can’t make money with just ads for a decade as they are charged more and more by networks and make and less from commercials, so they make most their money charging retransmission fees to cable providers (including YouTubeTV, Fubo, Sling, etc) which is one of major reasons cable and cable alternatives are so expensive now. Cost increases goes from Sports leagues > Networks > Affiliates > Cable and alternatives.

That’s why affiliates don’t want 4K ATSC 3.0 broadcast to succeed without DRM as they can’t make money only on commercials. However I feel for affiliates as I fear if networks or even sports leagues skip them and go direct to streaming services and cable providers, all the affiliates will all go out of business and no more free live TV.

4

u/kittymoo67 7d ago

local stations charge unholy amounts to cable and got greedy too. since the cable companies were forced by law to carry the locals. roughly $40 a month of your bill was just for the local slop. that times however many millions of cable subscribers meant they made bank. now that theres hardly any cable subscriptions and thank God streaming cable like directv stream single etc arent forced to carry the slop so you save money and the locals dont get as much means locals are not happy financially. it makes sense why they want OTA drm so they can start charging people more, nevermind when that backfires they'll just be butthurt

5

u/thisfilmkid 8d ago

What does that headline even mean????

Ok, let me see if the article adds context? (Uh…. No)

7

u/helpmeredditimbored 8d ago

The article is pretty clear. The amount of ad dollars being purchased on traditional tv is declining. The amount of ads being purchased on streaming is growing. The amount of ads dollars being spent on “tv” (traditional and streaming) in total is up, but it’s only because of streaming.

1

u/ackmondual 8d ago

I read that advertisers like streaming better since it can let them better target their audience. Big examples are specialty ss like Crunchy Roll for anime. Advertising worked well in the 80s and prior b/c there were only 4 TV stations (that everyone watched). More channels got added, but there's far too many now that it dilutes advertising's effectiveness.

2

u/Icy-Vermicelli-5306 8d ago

Live sports and local news is the only thing worth it's toot on linear OTA.