# The State of Streaming

> Trade journalism for CTV and streaming: platforms, advertising, measurement, deals, policy.

The State of Streaming is a trade publication for advertisers and industry insiders covering Connected TV (CTV) and streaming platforms. Every story carries a "Staff" byline and is reviewed by a human editor before publication. Every factual claim is sourced to a URL.

## Markdown alternates for every page

Every public URL on this site has a Markdown mirror at the same path with `.md` appended. LLM agents, retrieval pipelines, and citation tools should prefer these over the rendered HTML.

Examples:

- Homepage: https://thestateofstreaming.com/index.md
- About page: https://thestateofstreaming.com/about.md
- A section listing: https://thestateofstreaming.com/advertising-adtech.md
- An article: `https://thestateofstreaming.com/{section}/{YYYY}/{MM}/{slug}.md`
- A directory entity: https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/{slug}.md (also /people, /products, /tech)

The Markdown view includes the title, dek, publication metadata, summary, key facts, why-it-matters, what-to-watch, the full article body, entity tags, and the source-URL ledger.

## Sections

- [Platforms](https://thestateofstreaming.com/platforms/): Netflix, Disney, YouTube, Prime Video, Max, Paramount+, Peacock, Roku — the streamers themselves.
- [Advertising & Ad Tech](https://thestateofstreaming.com/advertising-adtech/): CTV ad buying, DSPs, SSPs, programmatic, the Upfronts and NewFronts, ad-supported tiers.
- [Measurement & Data](https://thestateofstreaming.com/measurement-data/): Nielsen, VideoAmp, iSpot, Comscore, currencies, cross-platform measurement, data clean rooms.
- [Business & Deals](https://thestateofstreaming.com/business-deals/): M&A, earnings, layoffs, exec moves, carriage deals, licensing and distribution.
- [Content & Programming](https://thestateofstreaming.com/content-programming/): Shows, movies, sports rights, original content strategy from the industry lens.
- [Devices & Distribution](https://thestateofstreaming.com/devices-distribution/): Smart TVs, FAST channels, Roku/Amazon/Apple/Google TV platforms, bundling.
- [Policy & Regulation](https://thestateofstreaming.com/policy-regulation/): FCC, FTC, antitrust, privacy, content moderation policy affecting streaming.
- [Opinion](https://thestateofstreaming.com/opinion/): Analysis and argument from the masthead. Labeled opinion, attributed to Staff.
- [Quick Bites](https://thestateofstreaming.com/quick-bites/): TL;DR roundups of the day's must-know items. Three-minute reads.

## Directory

- Companies: https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/  (markdown: https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies.md)
- People: https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/  (markdown: https://thestateofstreaming.com/people.md)
- Technology (categories + products): https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/  (markdown: https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech.md)

## Recent articles

- [Omnicom Says It's Cutting Out the Ad-Tech Middlemen. The Holdco-Direct Era Just Went Live.](https://thestateofstreaming.com/advertising-adtech/2026/05/omnicom-ai-agent-adtech-disintermediation/): Omnicom CEO John Wren and CTO Paolo Yuvienco told the April 28 Q1 2026 earnings call the holdco is running live agent-to-agent ad buys with several clients via the Ad Context Protocol, with the explicit goal of cutting out ad-tech intermediaries Wren called a "toll" on clients.
- [Apple Services Just Posted Its Sixth Straight Record. The Compounder Hides in Plain Sight.](https://thestateofstreaming.com/business-deals/2026/05/apple-services-q1-fy26-record-trend/): Apple's Services segment hit $30.97 billion in Q2 fiscal 2026, up 16.3% year-over-year — the sixth consecutive quarterly record and the longest such streak in the segment's history. The bundle hides one of the largest ad businesses in tech and a $20B regulatory line at risk.
- [YouTube Ads Hit $9.88B in Q1 — The Subscription Mix Is Catching Up](https://thestateofstreaming.com/platforms/2026/05/youtube-q1-2026-ad-revenue-trajectory/): YouTube ad revenue reached $9.88 billion in Q1 2026, up 10.7% year-over-year, while Alphabet's paid subscriptions across Google services crossed 350 million — with YouTube Music and Premium posting their largest quarterly subscriber gain since the paid tier's 2018 launch.
- [Meta-AWS Graviton Deal Is the Compute Moat, Disclosed](https://thestateofstreaming.com/opinion/2026/05/meta-aws-graviton-continuous-ai/): Meta and AWS disclosed on April 24, 2026 that Meta will deploy tens of millions of Graviton cores — a compute moat GDPR, ATT, and TikTok each failed to dilute, and the agentic-AI ad-tech cohort is competing against it now.
- [Cognition Is the New Currency Layer for CTV Ads](https://thestateofstreaming.com/measurement-data/2026/05/cognition-attention-currency-ctv-ads/): Cognition is the new bid layer for CTV ads. Viant's $40M TVision close and IAB-MRC attention guidelines are forcing a 2026 upfront pricing reset.
- [Charter Lifts Cox Synergies 60% as Comcast Waves Off Cable M&A](https://thestateofstreaming.com/business-deals/2026/05/comcast-charter-merger-talks-resurfacing/): Charter raised projected Cox synergies from $500 million to $800 million while Comcast posted its first year-over-year broadband improvement since 2020. The operators are betting on broadband consolidation, not cable consolidation. The merger talk is analyst chatter both publicly waved off.
- [Streaming Hit 45.6 Percent of Ad-Supported TV. The Verification Stack Is Catching Up.](https://thestateofstreaming.com/measurement-data/2026/05/ctv-transparency-ad-supported-default-ias/): Streaming reached 45.6 percent of U.S. ad-supported TV viewing in Q4 2025, making it the largest single TV segment. IAS CEO Lisa Utzschneider used that data to launch IAS Total TV on April 27, 2026, the latest in a four-month sequence of CTV transparency products — alongside DoubleVerify's DV Authentic Streaming TV...
- [DAZN Buys ViewLift After Failing to Buy the RSNs Themselves](https://thestateofstreaming.com/business-deals/2026/05/dazn-viewlift-rsn-infrastructure-pivot/): DAZN announced its agreement to acquire ViewLift on April 30, 2026 — Sportico exclusively reports the price at roughly $100 million. After December's Main Street Sports talks collapsed, DAZN bought the platform powering 15 teams' DTC apps instead of the RSNs themselves.
- [Three Deepfake Laws Hit CTV in 54 Days. No Federal Floor.](https://thestateofstreaming.com/policy-regulation/2026/05/deepfake-ai-state-law-patchwork-q2-2026/): Three deepfake regimes go live for CTV advertisers in 54 days — NY June 9, WA June 11, CA Aug. 2 — with no federal floor and only the IAB's January framework as buyer-side guidance. XR Extreme Reach is the only ad-stack vendor that has shipped tooling for synthetic-performer compliance.
- [Disney Folds Streaming Data Under the Ad Platform Before the Upfront](https://thestateofstreaming.com/platforms/2026/05/disney-exec-reorg-arora-1000-layoffs-leadership/): Disney's April 14 memo on roughly 1,000 layoffs and Adam Smith's April 27 reorg memo, obtained by Business Insider and The Desk, route streaming data engineering under the ad platform org and dissolve the Commerce, Data and Identity alliance 15 days before the May 12 upfront.
- [The 1961 NFL Antitrust Shield Meets a 2026 Streaming Model](https://thestateofstreaming.com/policy-regulation/2026/05/doj-nfl-streaming-antitrust-fox-sinclair-sba/): The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 was written for a broadcast world. A DOJ probe, an FCC docket, and Fox and Sinclair's own filings now converge on the same question: does the NFL's antitrust shield survive once carriage moves to subscription streaming?
- [FCC's ABC License Order Reaches a Lever That No Longer Fits](https://thestateofstreaming.com/policy-regulation/2026/05/fcc-abc-license-renewal-disney-escalation/): Carr's FCC ordered Disney to refile every ABC license by May 28, two to three years early. The lever is narrow by statute, the audience it touches has migrated to Hulu and Disney+, and NAB and a top Senate Republican have broken with the chair. The ceiling is closer than the pace implies.
- [Machine Cognition Hits Programmatic Ads: 30 Autonomous Campaigns Live on PubMatic](https://thestateofstreaming.com/advertising-adtech/2026/05/machine-cognition-programmatic-ads-agentic-ai/): Machine cognition in programmatic ads: 30 autonomous campaigns live on PubMatic AgenticOS, Kokai at near-total penetration. The audit trail is the moat.
- [Netflix's Amazon and Yahoo Targeting Layers Go Live for May 14](https://thestateofstreaming.com/advertising-adtech/2026/05/netflix-amazon-yahoo-q2-targeting-upfronts/): Netflix's Q2 2026 turn-on of Amazon Audiences targeting, Yahoo DSP deterministic signals, and a proprietary Conversion API gives buyers operative third-party data layers on Netflix inventory ahead of the May 14 upfront.
- [Netflix Bolts a Discovery Feed Onto Itself, and the Ad-Load Math Comes With It](https://thestateofstreaming.com/content-programming/2026/05/netflix-clips-vertical-video-discovery-war/): Netflix shipped Clips — a vertical, swipeable discovery feed — on iPhone in nine markets on April 30. The format is borrowed from TikTok, Reels, and Shorts; the question is whether the ad-load math comes with it.
- [NFL Network Goes Dark on Comcast — Disney's First Carriage Test Since the ESPN-NFL Stake Deal](https://thestateofstreaming.com/business-deals/2026/05/nfl-comcast-espn-blackout-first-dispute/): NFL Network went dark on Comcast's Xfinity TV on May 1, 2026, the first carriage dispute since ESPN closed its $3 billion deal for the channel in exchange for a 10% NFL equity stake. The standoff is the first market-priced test of whether the new ownership structure changes how NFL distribution gets negotiated.
- [PubMatic's AgenticOS Hits 1,000 Deals as Creative Suite Goes Live](https://thestateofstreaming.com/advertising-adtech/2026/05/pubmatic-agenticos-creative-suite-launch/): PubMatic's AgenticOS scaled from one deal to 1,000-plus in five months; the Creative Innovation Suite is now live with Celtra, BrightLine, and KERV. With AdCP's IAB Tech Lab status contested, the May 7 earnings print is the first quantitative test of whether the agentic thesis pays.
- [Roku Just Became the Only TV-OS Company Showing Its Ad Math](https://thestateofstreaming.com/platforms/2026/05/roku-q1-2026-print-100m-segment-split/): Roku's first quarter under split Advertising and Subscriptions reporting itemizes a $613M ad business at 60.5 percent gross margin and confirms third-party DSP spend grew more than 40 percent year-over-year — putting structural distance between Roku and every other US TV-OS peer ahead of Magnite, TTD, and PubMatic.
- [The Roku-TCL Class Action Puts Auto-Update Stewardship on Trial](https://thestateofstreaming.com/devices-distribution/2026/05/roku-tcl-class-action-bricked-tvs/): Else v. Roku, filed March 27 in the Central District of California, alleges Roku and TCL pushed software updates that bricked smart TVs across the Select, Plus, and TCL 3- through 6-Series lines — the first US federal class action that names the OTA update mechanism itself as the defect.
- [Meta's 70% of Social Ad Revenue Is the Walled-Garden Math](https://thestateofstreaming.com/opinion/2026/05/social-ad-concentration-omdia-meta-70/): Omdia's data puts social ad concentration at four platforms above 90%, Meta alone at 70%. Three resets promised to dilute it. All three compounded it.

## Full archive

https://thestateofstreaming.com/llms-full.txt

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## About

- About & Masthead: https://thestateofstreaming.com/about/  (markdown: https://thestateofstreaming.com/about.md)
- Ethics: https://thestateofstreaming.com/ethics/  (markdown: https://thestateofstreaming.com/ethics.md)
- Corrections: https://thestateofstreaming.com/corrections/  (markdown: https://thestateofstreaming.com/corrections.md)