The real competition between TV providers and streamers is not each other, it’s social video. Or at least that’s what Comcast Advertising president James Rooke said during an interview Wednesday at CES 2025 in Las Vegas. The ad exec was talking about the company’s Monday launch of “universal ads,” a solution that allows marketers to buy TV ads from multiple media companies in one place.
Universal advertising launch partners include A+E, AMC Networks, DIRECTV, Fox Corporation, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Roku, TelevisaUnivision, Warner Bros. Discovery and Xumo, while others are said to exist. Universal ad inventory will be streaming inventory to begin with, with plans to add solutions for linear TV inventory over time.
The goal is to simplify buying TV ads to better compete with how easy it is to buy ads on social video sites like YouTube. In other words, buying streaming TV ads should be as easy as buying ads on social videos, where there isn’t as much of a learning curve to get started.
“There are millions of advertisers out there who have built their businesses on social video, YouTube ads and more who haven’t been able to access the power of content [and] advertising solutions from companies like these and others as simply as they would like,” Rook said. “And as we talk to those advertisers who built their businesses on social video, they’re looking for new niche audiences.”
They’re also looking to associate their business with brand-safe content, which social video can’t always deliver, as past advertiser boycotts of YouTube and other social media sites have proven.
With the launch of universal ads, companies hope to make their “premium” video another category considered by the same marketers who are currently advertising on social network videos, whether they’re unscripted or short-form videos like those that are on YouTube or more social videos. like those found in Meta’s apps, the Comcast official noted.
That’s key because the majority of competition and growth in the industry has come from social video, Rooke said — and not necessarily from other TV providers or even streamers like Netflix and Amazon.
“While those companies, and us, compete in certain ways, the real competition comes from new providers chasing TV dollars… So if you look at where the growth is, we’re all doing very well in terms of CTV growth [Connected TV] business — our streaming business — and the app revenue that comes from that, but the majority of growth overall is going to social video, and that’s not slowing down,” Rook pointed out.
This led to Comcast’s decision to chase net new dollars from where the growth is, as opposed to going after the same advertising dollars as before.
YouTube was working for years to capture more dollars from TV adsparticularly as his service became more popular on television, which he now represents almost half of the viewership.
