By Hernan Lopez.
Companies mentioned: Amazon, Disney, Google, Meta, Netflix, Paramount Skydance, Peacock, TikTok, WBD, YouTube.
Questions answered: Which of the premium streamers is on track to make the most advertising revenue in 2025? How many companies use Generative AI tools to create video ads on Meta? How can premium streamers compete?
We will look back at 2025 as the year when it became obvious: advertising is inevitable.
This weekend, after an eagle-eyed developer discovered references to ads in the latest test version of ChatGPT, expert Eric Seufert reposted a now nine-month-old Tweet: “Obviously, OpenAI will monetize with ads”. Eric was referring to his March 2025 post predicting that would be the case—the same day Sam Altman had been asked if advertising was in the future and responded, “I hope not”. (And just as I was writing this, Sam Altman issued his now-famous Code Red memo, which, among other things, said they would delay the implementation of ads.)
Streaming only fully embraced advertising in the last three years. Sure, there were exceptions: YouTube, Spotify, Hulu and Peacock had free, ad-supported funnels from the beginning (Hulu phased it out in 2016, Peacock in 2023). Hulu didn’t even offer an ad-free option until 2015...