Industry Insights: How platforms are balancing ads, subscriptions and viewer demands

As the streaming landscape expands, monetization strategies are evolving just as quickly.

In part three of our Industry Insights roundtable series on streaming, broadcast vendors discuss the most effective ways to generate revenue across streaming platforms. From the rise of hybrid models combining subscription and advertising to the critical role of dynamic ad insertion and programmatic sales, participants explore how broadcasters and streamers can adapt their models to meet changing audience expectations while maximizing revenue.

The discussion also highlights the balance between monetization and viewer satisfaction, the impact of personalization and strategies for optimizing revenue across multiple distribution channels.

Key takeaways from this Industry Insights roundtable

• Hybrid models dominate: Combining advertising and subscription tiers is becoming the most sustainable approach for streamers looking to maximize both reach and revenue.
• Programmatic advertising surge: Automated ad buying is helping OTT services better monetize long-tail inventory and small advertisers, though privacy shifts are forcing new data strategies.
• Personalized ad experiences: Dynamic ad insertion and AI-driven personalization are critical to increasing viewer engagement and boosting ROI for both broadcasters and advertisers.
• Multichannel optimization needed: Content creators must build workflows that allow flexible, efficient distribution across OTT, FAST, CTV and social platforms to fully capitalize on content assets.
• Balancing revenue and satisfaction: Offering multiple monetization options, maintaining high content quality, and minimizing ad disruption are key to keeping viewers engaged and loyal.

What are the most effective monetization models currently used in streaming?

Paul Calleja, CEO, GlobalM: The most effective models include a mix of subscription video on demand, advertising based video (like FAST), and hybrid models that combine both. Dynamic ad insertion technology and programmatic advertising enable targeted monetization strategies, while content syndication across multiple platforms maximizes revenue opportunities. Additionally, partnerships with telecom and cloud providers, bundling options have proven successful in expanding audience reach.

Chris Clarke, CRO and co-founder, Cerberus Tech: While there is no one-size-fits-all monetization model for streaming, the most effective models align closely with content type, audience behavior, and platform reach. For some, that’s dynamic ad insertion in a FAST model. For others, it might be a pay-per-event approach or rights-based distribution to multiple platforms. Operational flexibility is key.

Cees van Versendaal, COO, MwareTV: Subscription based and advertisement based models remain dominant to generate revenue; however, both still come with challenges. Subscription-based models will have to consider increased costs in investment in high-quality content. Advertisement-based models need to sustain a large audience to meet the demands of advertisers.

Hadar Tel Mizrahi, senior product manager, targeted ads and recommendations, Viaccess-Orca: Hybrid models that combine subscription and advertising have proven particularly successful in expanding audiences and stabilizing revenues. Major streaming services project significant adoption of ad-supported subscriptions by 2025 – for example Peacock and Hulu.

Peter Mayhead, CEO, Pebble: This is the challenge for anyone looking to succeed in streaming. Content costs are rising: Netflix and others have driven up quality (and production costs) in drama; sports viewers demand more cameras, more replays and more insights. Streamers need to build a multi-faceted monetization model, with revenues from subscriptions, sponsorship, advertising and ancillary sales to secure the service.

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Michael Demb, VP, product strategy, TAG Video Systems: Hybrid models combining AVOD and SVOD are proving to be most effective due to their flexibility. Programmatic advertising, combined with dynamic ad insertion, enables personalization and maximizes inventory value. Monetization success now hinges on data-driven strategies and infrastructure that supports scalability.

Paul Davies, head of marketing, Yospace: Increasingly, broadcasters are opting for a joined-up server-side ad insertion (SSAI) strategy across all content types to deliver consistency of viewer experience and behind-the-scenes operations. Server-guided ad insertion (SGAI) is the next step in the evolution of ad insertion. While it’s not widely deployed yet,advanced features like applying DAI to longer DVR windows and faster load-up times for VOD are made simpler using SGAI.

Dave Dembowski, VP of global sales, Operative: The most effective model depends on the individual media company. Some streamers have huge catalogs of classic movies or exclusive premium shows which people are willing to pay premium subscription rates for while other streamers might feature live events like sports and popular reruns, which are often better monetized with advertising. Many streamers are experimenting with tiers to determine the best combination of subscription and advertising.

Lelde Ardava, COO, Veset: By far the most widespread and effective monetization models currently used in streaming involve some level of advertising. Platforms like YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime have all added an advertising tier to their offerings and are thriving on this model. The basis of free initial content, which used to be an issue, now seems to be widely accepted by many as the norm, particularly with younger generations.

Kev McCormick, product experience lead, Accedo: There are a variety of different monetization models, but the most successful ones right now are based on delivering some form of advertising. There is a global trend moving away from premium subscription services. In Australia, for example, premium ad-free subscriptions have fallen to 68% whereas ad-supported is up to 28% 2024 from 10% in 2023. I believe this is just the beginning of that trend and we will see much higher numbers for ad-supported subscriptions in the coming years.

Christopher J Bell, global strategy leader, media and entertainment, games, and sports, AWS: The most effective monetization models align consumer expectations with their experience on the platform. There’s room at every point on the spectrum from fully subscription-based to fully advertising supported, but the offer must match the consumer’s expectation. AI predictive models of user behavior are helpful in finding that balance point for any particular service.

Eric Gallier, VP, video solutions, Harmonic: As traditional ad loads approach saturation, innovative formats like in-stream advertising with split-screen formats are emerging as highly effective. These non-intrusive, server-side ad experiences preserve the viewer experience, boost brand visibility and open up new revenue opportunities. With the rising costs of sports rights, models like these are becoming essential to help providers recoup investment and stay competitive.

How can broadcasters look to maximize revenue?

Roberto Musso, technical director, NDI: Diversification in monetization strategies is key for broadcasters to maximize revenue. Whether it’s by combining subscription models with targeted ads, utilizing programmatic advertising, or implementing a dynamic ad insertion, these strategies can enhance viewer engagement. Additionally, personalized content, exclusive offerings and premium access can lead to new revenue streams.

Costa Nikols, strategy advisor, M&E, Telos Alliance: Broadcasters have two ways to go; they can either gain more viewers or cut costs. A better viewer experience naturally attracts and retains a larger audience. Technologies like dialogue intelligibility in Next Generation Audio, or at the very least, good audio loudness processing, prevent viewers from needing to adjust volume or rely on captions. On the cost-cutting side, broadcasters must provide various distribution formats for different streaming platforms.

Hadar Tel Mizrahi: Broadcasters can maximize revenues by diversifying monetization strategies, integrating subscriptions, advertising, and transactional models to create an optimal monetization mix tailored to various viewer segments. This strategy includes delivering relevant, personalized ads to targeted user groups and adjusting ad frequency based on viewer tolerance.

Francesco Scartozzi, VP, sales and business development, Matrox Video: Broadcasters can maximize revenue by focusing on high-quality content production that keeps viewers engaged. Techniques like dynamic camera angles, enhanced graphics, and immersive storytelling techniques — such as the NFL adapting video game-style cinematography — help maintain viewer attention. The longer audiences stay engaged, the more valuable advertising space becomes, leading to higher ad revenue.

Anupama Anantharaman, VP, product management, Interra Systems: Broadcasters need to differentiate their offerings in order to increase viewer engagement. With the emergence of IP-based workflows, immersive content, 4K and HDR, it has become crucial for broadcasters to harness these innovations to distinguish their offerings from competitors and enhance viewer engagement. However, evolving monetization models — such as subscription-based OTT services and ad-supported platforms — present a complex environment for predicting ROI. To navigate this effectively, broadcasters need to adopt flexible strategies that balance technological investment with financial providence, including diversifying revenue streams, optimizing content delivery to reach wider audiences, and exploring new partnerships.

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Olivier Karra, cloud solutions marketing director, Broadpeak: New ad unit types and interactivity are opening up revenue streams that were previously out of reach for content providers. Clickable, shoppable advertising is here — broadcasters need to make smart partnerships with retail providers and prepare their advertising workflows for new e-commerce and measurement expectations. And in the super-aggregation era, strategic operator-streamer partnerships are essential to capturing and retaining large audiences while gaining stronger ownership of first-party data.

Dave Dembowski: Broadcasters can maximize revenue best when they have a complete view of their product catalogue, projected audience and advertiser demand. Broadcasters need to balance pre-sold or up-front sales at premium prices with spot sales that can be sold dynamically. They also need to determine how best to bundle inventory into product offerings that maximize CPMs while still leaving room for open-market bidding.

Aaron Kroger, product marketing lead, Dalet: Maximizing revenue in a crowded market demands a diversified approach, combining subscription models, advertising-supported platforms, and strategic licensing opportunities. By leveraging metadata enrichment and AI automation, broadcasters can make content more discoverable, target ads more effectively, and identify untapped syndication opportunities. Cloud-based workflows further enhance flexibility, allowing broadcasters to dynamically respond to trends and optimize revenue streams in real time.

Tobias Fröhlich, managing director of product, Qvest: To ensure sustainable growth, businesses should diversify their revenue streams by combining advertising, subscription, and transactional models. When expanding, it is crucial to focus on markets with stable regulatory environments and strong growth potential. Additionally, companies must develop scenario-based strategies to navigate geopolitical disruptions effectively. By anticipating potential challenges and preparing agile responses, businesses can maintain resilience and quickly adapt to shifting global dynamics.

Eric Gallier: The rise of the freemium business model has opened new opportunities for revenue generation through targeted advertising. To fully capitalize on this approach, it’s essential to ensure the quality and accuracy of viewer data, as this will enable better targeting and more meaningful ad experiences.

James Gilbert, VP, sales and marketing, Pixel Power: AI is helping broadcasters to build out and enhance metadata where older content is concerned, and that obviously improves searchability and makes it easier for this content to be monetized. On-demand and OTT services provide a straightforward way to get this content in front of new audiences and give it a new lease of life. In addition, cost-effective regionalization and localization tools are helping broadcasters to take content to broader international audiences – a helpful additional revenue source.

Dee McVicker, marketing director, Wheatstone: As a manufacturer of streaming appliances, we’re seeing rising opportunities in streamed audio. What seems to be driving this is the broad reach of audiobooks, podcasts and music streaming services combined with programmatic ad exchanges like Triton Audio Marketplace, which makes it so much more practical for broadcasters to sell their ad inventory. We see streaming audio as a growing ad revenue source for all broadcasters, but especially those smaller market local stations that might not have access to national advertisers.

What impact does programmatic advertising have on OTT monetization?

Paul Calleja: Programmatic advertising has significantly improved OTT monetization by allowing advertisers to leverage audience segmentation and real-time bidding. This enhances ad relevance, which in turn improves viewer engagement and ad revenue. However, the reliance on third party data is being challenged by privacy regulations, pushing the industry towards more transparency and ethical data collection practices.

Dave Dembowski: Programmatic is a great way for OTT to automate media sales and delivery. While not all inventory should be or needs to be sold programmatically, many OTT media companies are interested in selling to smaller advertisers and selling their long tail or unsold direct inventory this way. What’s more, combined with self-service media buying programmatic can be a highly efficient way for OTT media companies to bring in extra demand efficiently.

What role do dynamic ad insertion and personalized advertising play in revenue growth?

Francesco Scartozzi: Advertisers are willing to pay for live events that maintain audience engagement. Dynamic ad insertion and personalized advertising enhance monetization by delivering relevant ads to specific viewers, ensuring that ads are seen by the right audience. Keeping viewers hooked to the content increases the chances of ad impressions, ultimately driving higher revenue.

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Michael Demb: Dynamic ad insertion (DAI) is pivotal for tailoring content and maximizing CPMs. Personalized ads enhance viewer relevance and engagement, leading to higher conversion rates and ROI.

Olivier Karra: Sophisticated advertising is central to streaming revenue growth — services live and die by their ability to monetize effectively at scale. Modern dynamic ad insertion powers multiple benefits, from increased inventory value and hyper-personalization to performance advertising and better measurement. Personalized ads boost viewer engagement, reducing churn and driving impressions to deliver long-term revenue growth.

Paul Davies: Advertisers expect one-to-one addressability and real-time, actionable insights — just as they would expect from social media and other digital platforms. By using DAI to serve relevant, personalized ads, broadcasters can increase engagement and provide the detailed performance data that advertisers need to refine their campaigns. This improves the viewer experience and strengthens relationships with advertisers, driving more revenue.

Dave Dembowski: Advertisers look at CTV and streaming as addressable platforms, and they want to target audiences and personalize creative messaging and buy the right impressions to reach them at the right time. At the same time, media companies want to increase their agility and ability to deliver relevant ads. Dynamic Ad Insertion gives media companies that ability, so they can layer in advanced targeting to deliver different ads to different audiences and make faster ad placement decisions and real-time optimizations.

Lelde Ardava: Dynamic ad insertion and personalized advertising are becoming the backbone of many streaming platforms, with most finding immense benefit from relatable, contextual ads that prioritize user retention and engagement. By using a monetization model that doesn’t interrupt the content, dynamic ad insertion and personalized advertising use targeted ads displayed alongside relevant content to effectively capture the user’s attention, while not driving them away from the initial content. With more models for dynamic ad insertion being introduced, such as server-side-ad-insertion (SSAI) and picture-in-picture advertising, personalized, targeted advertising is set to be a future-proofed alternative to subscription based advertising models in the streaming landscape.

Tobias Fröhlich: TV networks can no longer rely solely on traditional distribution models. The growing dominance of D2C platforms means networks must establish direct relationships with viewers to control user data, personalization, and monetization. This shift requires investments in branded apps, robust content recommendation engines, and first-party data strategies.

Eric Gallier: There is a clear shift in the video industry from traditional TV advertising toward connected TV and dynamic ad insertion, with CTV ad spend projected to nearly match linear TV ad spend by 2028. Dynamic ad insertion and personalized advertising play a critical role in unlocking new revenue streams, especially in high-value areas like live sports streaming. As ad inventories for premium events reach capacity, personalized in-stream ad formats — such as split-screen ads — enable service providers to deliver more relevant, less intrusive ad experiences without disrupting the action.

How can content creators optimize revenue streams across multiple distribution channels?

Chris Clarke: Ideally, they leverage automated processing along with built-in observability and protocol-agnostic infrastructure to package content once and deliver variants to different endpoints. Looking at secondary and tertiary use cases for the same content, they can further boost revenues. With the right architecture, content creators have the flexibility to distribute content to social, FAST, OTT, and broadcast endpoints simultaneously, without the cost and complexity of spinning up separate workflows for each.

Roger Franklin, chief strategy officer, LTN: Creating platform-tailored event feeds or news channels without investing in disparate channel creation and ad enablement workflows is a powerful way to optimize multi-platform revenue. Simplified ad signaling that enables custom and localized targeting across broadcast and digital environments is helping content owners maximize revenue without having to manage siloed ad processes.

Olivier Karra: Know your global audience. Adapting content to local markets’ expectations and preferences is critical. Whether through automated subtitling, dubbing to match varying cultural preferences, or by delivering hyper-targeted advertising across varying platforms and regions.

Paul Davies: Revenue optimization across multiple distribution channels comes down to effective measurement. Measurement is critical because it informs advertisers on how their ad dollars are being spent and ensures broadcasters can capture ad revenues from every available channel. The latest Common Media Client Data v2 (CMCDv2) standard will enable better ad tracking, ensuring rights owners get the data they need across ad-supported streams on FAST and third-party platforms, so long as the client is CMCDv2 compliant.

Dave Dembowski: The main component for multichannel optimization is a unified view of the entire business. Understanding revenue, audience and product information across channels helps content creators spot opportunities to deliver the right content to audiences where they want it and bundle products effectively for advertiser demand and scale. What’s more, distribution and revenue partnerships that help content creators reach new audiences or bring in incremental demand can only be effectively evaluated when they have a cohesive understanding of their entire business.

Aaron Kroger: Creators can unlock revenue potential by adopting a centralized, cloud-enabled content hub that supports seamless delivery across OTT, FAST channels, connected TV, and social media platforms. Metadata-driven workflows streamline content preparation, enabling efficient customization for different formats and audience preferences without duplicating effort. This integration of production, asset management, and distribution ensures agility in meeting audience demands while maximizing profitability across diverse channels.

Lucas Bertrand, founder and CEO, Looper Insights: Content creators can optimize revenue by strategically windowing and tailoring distribution to each platform’s strengths. Licensing to partners with broader reach can drive early exposure, while long-term value can be captured through AVOD and FAST as content matures. Maximizing every window — from premium to free — ensures franchises stay visible and profitable across their full lifecycle.

What strategies are effective in balancing monetization with viewer satisfaction?

Roberto Musso: The key strategy to balancing monetization with viewer satisfaction is finding a model that delivers value and quality, especially for scalable streaming and live events. Models that provide options for ad-free and ad-supported content cater to different user preferences, while data-driven approaches keep engagement high. For industries like sports and live production, maintaining high-quality, low-latency streaming ensures monetization efforts don’t come at the expense of the viewer experience.

Hadar Tel Mizrahi: Balancing monetization with viewer satisfaction can be achieved by managing ad frequency, optimizing ad relevance through targeted advertising, offering multiple pricing options (ad-supported tiers), and continually enhancing user experience. Transparent advertising practices, content personalization, minimal disruption to viewing experiences, and regular measurement of audience feedback are critical for maintaining viewer satisfaction and ensuring sustainable monetization.

Francesco Scartozzi: The key to balancing monetization with viewer satisfaction lies in creating compelling content that prevents audience drop-off. High production values, strategic use of graphics, and interactive elements — like unique camera angles that mimic video game aesthetics — enhance the viewing experience. If content feels engaging rather than overly commercialized, audiences are more likely to stay, leading to better ad visibility and sustained revenue.

Michael Demb: By adopting an infrastructure that supports format flexibility, real time analytics, and centralized workflow monitoring. TAG enables end-to-end visibility, allowing creators to scale efficiently and align content delivery with audience behavior.

Olivier Karra: Finding a sweet spot by balancing user experience (UX) with ad load across mixed inventory is important. For example, combining the right ratio of mid-roll ad breaks and new, non-linear formats like L-banner ads or overlays. How to get it right? KPI’s, A/B testing across services, then find out what works and double down on success.

Paul Davies: The key strategy in balancing monetization with viewer satisfaction is ensuring that ads are delivered seamlessly without interrupting the content experience. This is where DAI becomes so valuable — it allows broadcasters to insert ads in a non-disruptive way. Additionally, live streaming features like extended DVR windows must be monetized in a way that doesn’t affect the viewer experience or take up too much server power.

Dave Dembowski: Viewers are fickle and notoriously contradictory because what they really want is free content with no ads. Ask them if they like ads and they will say no. Ask them if they want to pay a fee to get no ads and they will also say no. The right strategy is to give audiences a choice so that they feel like they are in control and that they are getting good value. That doesn’t mean they have to be perfectly satisfied, because the goal is to also maximize revenue by encouraging audiences to trade up to a more premium tier.

Eric Gallier: An effective strategy for balancing monetization with viewer satisfaction is adopting a freemium business model supported by targeted advertising. Freemium models give viewers access to content at no cost while still generating revenue through ads, striking a healthy balance between accessibility and profitability. In-stream advertising is another effective approach to boosting monetization and viewer happiness — particularly for live sports.

Mark Donnigan, strategic marketing head, Netint: Balancing monetization and satisfaction involves optimizing ad relevance and load, offering tiered choices, and ensuring a seamless viewing experience. Technologies like server-side ad insertion (SSAI) driven by robust processing minimize disruptions during ad breaks. Using efficient codecs like AV1 or enhancements like LCEVC, processed effectively by VPUs, contributes to high QoE while managing costs.