For TV, disruption came gradually and then suddenly.

Hemingway’s oft-quoted refrain from The Sun Also Rises perfectly captures the seismic shifts that have redefined the TV industry since the pandemic reset our lives and viewing habits just a half decade ago.

In a few short years, we’ve seen marketers cycle through all seven stages of grief over the cookie’s oft-referenced demise. But the last year felt like the industry collectively reached the “acceptance” phase and started putting solutions into action.

2024: A Year of Acceptance and Fulfilled Promises

Some key trends:

• The explosive growth of CTV and streaming video consumption, a trend supercharged by shifting consumer expectations for on-demand content.
• A rapid transition from scarcity to abundance in CTV ad supply, with platforms like Prime Video ushering in significant CTV ad inventory.
• Antitrust pressure intensifying on big tech giants like Alphabet and Meta, creating new opportunities for mid-sized ad tech players to carve out their niches.
• The patchwork of state-level privacy regulations, driving innovation in privacy-centric ad tech solutions.
• A surge in first-party data investment by TV streamers, distributors, advertisers (from global brands to SMBs), and agencies alike, as everyone seeks to build competitive advantages in audience targeting and measurement.
• The emergence of ad tech powerhouses like The Trade Desk and AppLovin, which now stand as multi-billion-dollar giants in their own right.
• M&A activity among traditional media companies is finally gaining steam as they scramble to reposition themselves for a streaming-first future.

And a few highlights:

• The Olympics became a case study in hybrid live and on-demand viewing, thanks to NBCUniversal’s masterful execution, showing how a global event can thrive in a streaming-first world.
• Sports streaming went mainstream, with Netflix and Amazon continuing to chip away at traditional broadcasters’ dominance.
• The battle for the next frontier of competition—the TV operating system—heated up, with several players introducing innovative platforms designed to make the TV interface the centerpiece of ad engagement. Whether it was the traditional OS’ (Roku/Samsung), the collaborative venture upstarts (Comcast & Charter’s Xumo), or the latest entrant (The Trade Desk’s Ventura) – the race to provide the best way to surface and deliver content, manage ID signaling and tech standards, and preserve privacy best is fully on.
• Ad tech innovation was dominated by a focus on greater identity capabilities, improved fidelity in IP-based targeting and measurement, and self-serve platforms designed to woo small and medium-sized businesses away from search and social.

At Blockgraph, we were fortunate to have a front-row seat for these transformations. It’s been a privilege to play a part in shaping the next phase of our industry’s evolution.

So how did my 2024 Predictions hold up? Take a look at this quick recap video for the fully story.

2025: What to Expect

As we turn the page to 2025, here are the emerging trends I believe will define the next chapter in TV ad tech, marking a bit of an inversion of traditional roles across the marketplace.

1. The Reemergence of Local: Media will become increasingly localized as marketers realize the untapped potential of geo-targeted alongside more traditional audience-targeted campaigns. Expect to see platforms increase their focus on local (note Amazon’s recent deal with Spectrum Reach) and build products and offerings tailored to hyper-local audiences.
2. Universal IDs for Household-Level Targeting: The industry will finally recognize the value of a universal household identifier alongside person-based email dependent approaches, unlocking new levels of targeting and measurement accuracy.  This will be adopted by both the big traditional TV players and the streamers who will soon realize that consumption has always been about the household and that isn’t likely to change soon.
3. Addressable TV as an Incremental Reach Tool: Advertisers will embrace addressable not just for precision but as a scalable way to extend reach beyond linear. Instead of just linear providing reach and addressable providing more precise targeting, these roles will merge.
4. Traditional Media + Big Tech Partnerships: The lines between “traditional” and “emerging” tech players will blur as partnerships like Amazon and Spectrum Reach’s aforementioned local reseller collaboration take center stage.
5. Self-Service Everywhere (including for Clean Rooms and Attribution): All facets of campaign management will enter the self-serve era, including campaign attribution. Advertisers will be able to easily access clean rooms directly to tie outcomes like sales and visits to media exposure.

Closing Thoughts

If 2024 clarified the challenges and opportunities facing TV and traditional media, 2025 will be a year of steady progress—where the hard work of transformation starts to show real, measurable results.  [SV1] The CTV ad tech industries are no longer just adapting to change—they’re shaping it.

At Blockgraph, we couldn’t be more excited to help the industry tackle the concomitant  challenges head-on. The only thing that’s certain? It’s going to be one hell of a ride.

Here’s to another year of evolution, innovation, and a healthy dose of disruption along the way.

See you on the quarter century mark.

Jason Manningham is Blockgraph's CEO and Co-Founder.