The monetization stack for a small streaming app, explained
You don't need FreeWheel's stack to sell ads on a niche streaming service. Here's what the minimum viable CTV ad stack actually looks like — and the order to build it in.
The connected-TV industry, on one page
You don't need FreeWheel's stack to sell ads on a niche streaming service. Here's what the minimum viable CTV ad stack actually looks like — and the order to build it in.
Viewership keeps climbing, but revenue per hour lags. The gap lives in the plumbing: pod construction, ad decisioning, and reporting most channels never look at.
Behind every streaming ad break sits an ad server deciding what plays. The market splits into big-media incumbents and a new crop of independents — and whose side your vendor is on matters.
The channels are free, the guide looks like cable, and the business model is pure television — a primer on streaming's fastest-growing category.
Server-side insertion made streaming ads seamless but muddied measurement. SGAI is the compromise architecture most new CTV builds are converging on.
Retail media is a ~$69 billion business hunting for bigger screens, and TV platforms are hunting for better data. The deals redrawing both markets are already signed.
Nielsen's half-century monopoly on TV measurement has become a five-way fight — and billions in upfront deals now settle on the challengers' numbers.
Streamers will spend an estimated $14.2 billion on sports rights in 2026. The NBA's new deals show what the post-cable sports bundle actually looks like.
Server-side ad insertion is the invisible plumbing behind FAST channels and live streaming — here's how it works and why the market for it is growing fast.
Nielsen's Gauge has streaming closing in on half of all US television time, with one platform out in front three months running.
2026 is the year connected TV stopped being the challenger in TV advertising's biggest ritual.
Free ad-supported streaming TV is no longer the industry's side bet — it's a daily habit for more than a third of Americans, and the money is starting to follow the minutes.