#fast

#fast

In its fourth-quarter earnings call last week, Roku announced its platform revenue - which includes ads sold both on its Roku Channel FAST service, as well as display ads on its home screen - grew 18% year-over-year to reach $1.2 billion, pushing total growth for the entire year to a similar 18% and total revenue of $4.1 billion. It's a sign the connected TV (CTV) ad market is maturing - though experts told The Daily Upside it's still far from mature.

Cable TV died only to return as live TV streaming services. Some familiar names are still around, like DirecTV, but even more have popped up as wholly unique entities. TV looks a lot different than it did a decade ago, with cord-cutting going mainstream, and TV giants ditching the proprietary boxes and hardware leases in favor of streaming over the internet.

Tubi is working with IRIS.TV, a contextual targeting company acquired by Viant last November, to tag much of its on-demand content for emotional or thematic content, using categories like "joyful" or "travel." The idea is that advertisers will be able to invest, at a more granular level, against inventory that is suitable for their brands and avoid TV that isn't.

Apple just raised prices for its streaming service by 30%. Apple TV+ now costs $12.99 per month, up from the $9.99 price tag it has had since October 2023. The 30% increase will take effect in the next 30 days for existing subscribers. However, prices won't change for the streamer's annual plan or Apple's Apple One bundle, which includes Apple TV+.