If everything is measured on ROAS, you're in for failure.
In the evolving theater of streaming television, consolidation is arriving not as disruption but as correction — a market that multiplied platforms beyond reason is now drawing back toward coherence. As Disney folds Hulu into its flagship service and Paramount prepares to merge with Max, advertisers who have long struggled to see clearly across a fragmented landscape are watching for signs that measurement, pricing, and data sharing might finally stabilize. The tension between scale and control, between the promise of AI and the pride of craft, defines where the industry stands in 2026 — not at a resolution, but at a threshold.
- YouTube commands three-quarters of streaming ad placements and half of all budgets, but the ground beneath that dominance is shifting as major platform mergers threaten to redraw the competitive map entirely.
- Eleven or more ad-supported platforms competing for the same dollars have driven CPMs downward, destabilizing the market even as advertisers celebrate the short-term savings.
- Measurement remains the industry's open wound — walled gardens, encryption, and incompatible metrics leave advertisers unable to trace how their spending actually performs across the ecosystem.
- Consolidation carries a quiet promise: shared audience data between merged platforms could finally crack open the black boxes, enabling closed-loop attribution that connects an ad impression to an actual purchase.
- Despite AI reshaping nearly every adjacent media channel, 82% of CTV marketers have not adopted it for campaigns — held back by the reverence advertisers feel for the biggest screen in the house and the fear that machine-made creative will betray the premium feel television demands.
- AI is nonetheless arriving through side doors — contextual targeting during live sports, production tools for smaller brands, and agent-based media buying systems that could automate the mechanical work of placement and optimization faster than any human trader.
YouTube's hold on streaming advertising remains unbroken entering 2026, with three-quarters of marketers placing ads there and half of all streaming budgets flowing to the platform. But the ecosystem around it is in motion. Disney is absorbing Hulu into Disney+ before year's end, and Paramount is preparing to merge Paramount+ with Max pending regulatory approval. For an industry that has watched ad-supported streaming splinter into eleven or twelve competing platforms, these consolidations feel less like disruption than relief.
The fragmentation has had real consequences. Competing platforms have driven CPMs downward as marketers leveraged their options, destabilizing pricing even as it benefited short-term budgets. Tinuiti's Harry Browne expects the mergers to reverse that trend, stabilizing prices and giving platforms the scale to compete more effectively. YouTube's Brian Albert offered a counterpoint — consolidation risks recreating the old cable bundle model, potentially making targeting harder even as it simplifies the platform map. The deeper promise, multiple executives agreed, lies in data: merged platforms can share audience information across properties, potentially breaking through the walled gardens that have made cross-platform measurement so elusive.
Measurement is the industry's most persistent frustration. Marketers cite lack of transparency, high media costs, and insufficient budgets as their top challenges. Success metrics vary wildly by platform — watch time dominates on YouTube, impressions on Peacock and Disney+, click-through rates on Netflix and Prime Video. Milani Cosmetics CMO Jeremy Lowenstein cautioned against reducing everything to return on ad spend. The right metric, he argued, depends on the platform, the content, and what the advertiser actually hopes to achieve. Progress is being made — clean room solutions and conversion APIs are slowly opening formerly closed ecosystems — but the pace remains uneven.
Artificial intelligence presents a similar story of potential constrained by hesitation. Eighty-two percent of CTV marketers are not using AI in their campaigns, a striking contrast to the 51% adoption rate on social media. The gap reflects television's origins in broadcast rather than data, and the particular pride advertisers take in what appears on the largest screen in the home. Yet AI is entering through other channels: NBCUniversal launched contextual targeting tools for live sports, Roku embedded AI to help smaller brands produce creative affordably, and Netflix unveiled VOID, a tool capable of altering video footage at the object level. The more transformative application may be in media buying itself — AI agents that automate placement and optimization faster than human traders, returning savings to advertisers in efficiency and cost. Whether marketers will trust AI with their most valued creative real estate remains the defining question of the years ahead.
YouTube's grip on the streaming ad market shows no signs of loosening. Three-quarters of marketers surveyed in early 2026 are placing ads on the platform, and half of all streaming ad budgets flow there—a dominance that has held steady for four consecutive years. Yet the landscape beneath that stability is shifting fast. Disney is folding Hulu into Disney+ by year's end. Paramount is preparing to merge Paramount+ with Max, pending regulatory approval of the Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. These consolidations promise to reshape how advertisers reach audiences, even as they grapple with a fragmented ecosystem that has become harder to navigate, not easier.
The mergers arrive as a kind of relief to an industry drowning in choice. Amazon's Prime Video with ads sits in second place at 47% of marketers, while Hulu and Paramount+ tie for third at 43% each. But beneath those rankings lies a deeper problem: there are now eleven or twelve major ad-supported streaming platforms competing for viewer attention and advertiser dollars. That fragmentation has crushed pricing. Marketers have wielded their leverage to push CPMs downward, a trend that has benefited their budgets but destabilized the market. Harry Browne, vice president of TV, audio and display innovation at performance marketing agency Tinuiti, expects the pending mergers to reverse that pressure. "My expectation is that we're going to see a bottoming out of the CPM trends that we've seen over the last couple of years," he said. Consolidation, he argued, will stabilize prices and give individual platforms the scale to compete more effectively.
Yet YouTube's managing director of U.S. video deals and creative works, Brian Albert, sounded a cautionary note. The mergers, he suggested, risk recreating the old cable television model—replacing "too many apps" with "the mega bundle." That shift could actually make targeting harder for some advertisers, even as it simplifies the platform landscape. The real promise of consolidation lies in data. When Disney combines Hulu and Disney+, or when Paramount merges its services, the companies can share audience information across properties. That shared data could finally break through the walled gardens that have made measurement so difficult. Kristina Shepard, executive vice president of streaming, performance sales and partnerships at NBCUniversal, pointed to emerging solutions: partnerships with retail media networks, cleaner datasets, and closed-loop attribution that can trace an ad impression all the way to a purchase.
But measurement remains the industry's most persistent headache. Marketers told researchers that lack of measurement transparency, high media costs, and insufficient budgets are their top three challenges. On YouTube, 46% of marketers use watch time as their primary success metric—the highest percentage for any platform. Watch time matters because it signals engagement; it suggests that viewers are actually paying attention, not just passively absorbing impressions. On other platforms, the picture fragments. Peacock, Max, Disney+, and Paramount+ marketers lean on impressions to gauge success, while those buying on Netflix Standard and Prime Video emphasize click-through rates. Jeremy Lowenstein, chief marketing officer at Milani Cosmetics, warned against the trap of measuring everything through return on ad spend. "If everything is measured on ROAS, you're in for failure," he said. "It's about being honest with yourself about that." The right metric depends on the platform, the content, the screen size, and what the advertiser actually hopes to achieve.
The measurement challenge runs deeper than just picking the right KPI. Streaming platforms operate as walled gardens, using encryption and limiting data sharing to protect their competitive advantages. That fragmentation makes it nearly impossible for advertisers to see the full picture of how their spending performs across the ecosystem. Tinuiti's Browne noted that the industry has made progress. His agency has tested Netflix's conversion API tools and worked with Amazon and Google on clean room solutions that can track users from ad exposure to purchase. "We have seen a lot of these traditional black box, walled garden environments become more open to the idea of deterministic measurement," he said. Still, the pace of change is uneven, and many advertisers remain frustrated.
Artificially intelligent tools are beginning to reshape how streaming ads are bought and placed, yet the vast majority of marketers have not embraced them. Eighty-two percent of survey respondents said they are not using AI in their CTV campaigns—a stark contrast to social media, where 51% of marketers have adopted AI. The lag reflects the nature of television itself. "AI adoption in CTV has historically lagged because TV was built on a broadcast mindset, whereas social media was built on data," Albert explained. CTV is also the creative medium advertisers are most protective of. "CTV is the type of creative that advertisers are most precious about," Browne said. "They have the most pride in what they put on the biggest screen in the house." The fear is that AI-generated or AI-altered content might look off, might undermine the premium feel that makes television advertising valuable in the first place.
Yet AI is creeping into the space. NBCUniversal launched AI-powered tools in December 2025 to enable contextual targeting during live sports and events. Roku has embedded AI into its ad tech stack to help smaller brands and direct-to-consumer companies produce creative without the prohibitive costs of traditional TV production. In April 2026, Netflix researchers unveiled VOID, an AI tool that can remove objects from video, detect relationships between elements in a scene, and alter footage altogether. The real frontier may be in media buying itself. Browne pointed to AdCP—an AI agent-based approach to automating media purchases—as one of the more promising applications. If AI can handle the mechanical work of buying and optimizing placements faster than human traders and DSPs, the savings could flow back to advertisers in lower costs and more effective campaigns. "AI is not going away at this point," said Cory Treffiletti, chief marketing officer of AI-driven ad tech company Rembrand. The question is not whether AI will reshape CTV, but how quickly advertisers will trust it with their most valuable creative real estate.
Notable Quotes
The most immediate effect on viewers will be going from 'too many apps' to 'the mega bundle,' essentially creating a landscape that looks like the old cable TV model.— Brian Albert, YouTube managing director of U.S. video deals and creative works
My expectation is that we're going to see a bottoming out of the CPM trends that we've seen over the last couple of years. This consolidation helps bottom out that pressure and starts to stabilize CPMs.— Harry Browne, Tinuiti vice president of TV, audio and display innovation
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does YouTube keep winning if the market is so fragmented?
Because YouTube isn't really competing on the same terms as the others. It has Google's entire ecosystem behind it—search, display, all of it. A marketer can see if an ad on YouTube lifted search interest or brand queries. That's a kind of measurement advantage the pure streaming platforms can't match.
So the mergers are supposed to fix fragmentation, but you're saying they might just recreate cable TV?
Exactly. Instead of choosing between twelve platforms, you choose between three mega-bundles. That's simpler for the consumer, maybe, but for an advertiser trying to reach a specific audience, it could actually be harder. You lose the ability to cherry-pick platforms. You get bundled into a package.
What's the real problem keeping marketers from using AI?
It's not just fear of the technology. It's that TV is the biggest screen in the house. If an AI generates something that looks slightly wrong, it damages the brand in a way a bad social media ad doesn't. There's more at stake.
But AI is already being used to buy ads, right?
Yes, and that's where it's most likely to expand. The mechanical work—optimizing placements, negotiating prices, moving budgets in real time—that's where AI can add real value without touching the creative itself.
What happens to prices when these mergers close?
Prices have been falling because there are too many platforms chasing the same advertisers. Once consolidation happens, there's less competition, so CPMs should stabilize. That's good for the platforms, less good for advertisers who've gotten used to discounts.
Is measurement actually getting better?
Slowly. Clean rooms and retail media partnerships are helping. But the fundamental problem—walled gardens and encrypted data—that's structural. It won't disappear just because platforms merge. It might get better between merged properties, but the industry as a whole is still fragmented.