Social and TV Converge: Marketers Reconsider Strategy

Your television doesn’t know it has been lied to BUT Ofcom does. Nobody told you that television has quietly changed the rules. (perhaps they were hoping you wouldn’t notice). It is said that YouTube is now the most watched video platform in the UK (which sounds like a fact about entertainment, but it is actually a fact about regulation.) When you watch something on Netflix, a human being with legal accountability decided it should exist. When you watch something on YouTube, an algorithm decided you probably wouldn’t turn it off. These are not the same thing. We have agreed to treat them as the same thing because both happen on the rectangle in your living room. Ofcom will shortly hold Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon to enforceable content standards (accuracy, harmful material, impartiality) … with some very real consequences for breaching them. YouTube, however, will be regulated under the same framework as dating apps & online forums. This is not a technicality. This is the government’s formal position on what kind of ‘thing’ YouTube actually is. Earlier this year, Google legally blocked the first serious attempt to measure YouTube viewing alongside broadcast television. Some say that the platform that ‘most wants to be taken seriously as TV’ was the one most determined to avoid TV-standard scrutiny. A man who refuses to be weighed is not necessarily overweight. But he has given you some information. The next time someone tells you they saw something on YouTube; ‘therefore it must be true’ … pause … On BBC iPlayer, somebody is legally responsible for that claim. On Netflix, somebody is legally responsible for that claim. On YouTube, the algorithm surfaced it because you once watched something vaguely similar at 11pm on a Tuesday. These are different levels of accountability. They now have official, documented, regulatory names. One is called a Tier 1 broadcaster. The other is categorised alongside Tinder.

Using traditional TV to reach P65+ remains a well-supported marketing decision. Not only do many studies show that the combination of audio plus video on the big screen is highly impactful, but according to Nielsen Gracenote, P65+ in the US spend about 2x as much time watching traditional TV vs. adults in general. In fact, traditional TV represents 80% of their TV viewing. This makes traditional TV an obvious buy. #Allscope #Media #MediaBuying #Data https://vist.ly/546qh

We built a data report. The thesis: YouTube is television. Not a social platform. Not a discovery tool. Television. 12.7% of all U.S. TV viewing. 11 consecutive months at number one. A 4-point lead over Disney, the largest any single platform has ever held since Nielsen started tracking. The number that surprised me most: adults 65 and over are now the fastest growing YouTube demographic on TV. Their watch time doubled in two years. They now watch as much YouTube as kids under 11. The platform most brands still treat as a youth channel has become something much harder to ignore. Here is the part most brands are missing. A sponsored post lasts 14 days. A YouTube series lasts forever. Episode one from 2022 is still finding new viewers today. Every episode increases the discoverability of the last. The algorithm rewards watch time and session depth, which means a well-made show compounds in ways a media buy never will. The brands winning on YouTube are not the ones renting time with sponsored posts. They are the ones building shows where they can own the IP and more importantly own the audience. #YouTube #ConnectedTV #CTV #StreamingTV #Television #MediaStrategy #BrandStrategy #ContentMarketing #DocumentaryFilm #UnscriptedTV #OwnedMedia #ContentIsKing #BrandStorytelling #NonfictionFilm #CreatorEconomy #Marketing #DigitalMedia #Advertising #MediaIndustry #FutureOfTV https://lnkd.in/epAFXB72

As Stephen Colbert closed out his iconic run with "The Late Show" last week, we used data from Tubular Labs to examine the show's recent YouTube surge, and looked at TV advertising trends over the years with insights from iSpot. 📈 Colbert’s show saw a 30% year-over-year increase in unique U.S. YouTube viewers, reaching 1.9 million viewers in April. 📈 TV ad reach for "The Late Show" has increased overall since 2022, from 11.8 million household impressions to 15 million in 2025 and 6 million in 2026 💡 More insights at the link in comments #TheLateShowWithStephenColbert #TheLateShow #StephenColbert #Colbert #TubularLabs #iSpot #SocialVideo #TVAnalytics

Linear television isn't slowly fading. It's being abandoned by the very people who built it. In the space of six months we've watched: Stephen Colbert launch a YouTube channel 48 hours after CBS shut down The Late Show - and pull 120,000 subscribers in a weekend. Piers Morgan walk away from a £50 million Murdoch deal to own his Uncensored brand outright on YouTube. The BBC negotiate its first ever commissions made specifically for YouTube, after the platform overtook BBC One on UK monthly reach.   The numbers tell the story: 16–24 year olds now watch just 33 minutes of broadcast TV a day (Ofcom). YouTube has been the largest TV distributor in America for six straight months (Nielsen). $36 billion in ad revenue last year - more than all four US broadcast networks put together.   For SMEs and business owners, this isn't a media story. It's a distribution story.   The platform that gives talent ownership, global reach and a direct relationship with its audience is the platform that wins. The 11.35pm slot was always about the broadcaster's logistics, never about the viewer.   The schedule has been replaced by the search bar. The time slot has been replaced by the thumbnail.   My column for Business Matters this week on why the slot is finally dead, and what that means for any business still trying to rent attention from someone else. https://lnkd.in/eRQdNwu5   #YouTube #CreatorEconomy #MediaBusiness #LinearTV #DigitalTransformation #BusinessMatters

In today’s fragmented media landscape, diverse audiences continue to turn to TV news for their central source of information versus other options like social media.   In this new VAB analysis, we explore why the accuracy, familiarity and unbiased perspectives keep these audiences coming back to their favorite news networks. Plus how TV News enhances brand perception and motivates these audiences to purchase. Get the full scoop here: https://lnkd.in/e6dSR7JA

There's a TV ad airing right now that broadcasts upside down. Not as a gimmick. Not as a "digital-first moment." As a commitment to an idea. Its Hiscox, and the campaign is by Uncommon Creative Studio. And if you haven't seen it — or the press ads where handwritten copy scratched across newspaper pages makes the same argument — you should find it. Everyone in our industry talks about "big ideas." Most of what gets called a big idea is actually a big execution. A beautifully filmed 60-second film. A clever headline. A striking visual. These are not the same thing. What Uncommon have done is something rarer: they found an idea with its own internal logic — one that generates distinct, surprising expressions across every channel it touches, without needing to be reinvented for each one. The newspaper doesn't look like the TV. The TV doesn't look like anything else on television. And yet they are unmistakably the same thought. The upside-down broadcast isn't a stunt. Its a proof of concept. It demonstrates, physically, that the idea has enough structural integrity to survive being turned on its head — literally — and still land. So the question for senior marketing leaders isn't whether they'd have approved it. The question is whether their briefing process, their risk frameworks, their committee reviews, would have allowed it to exist. A great idea, properly protected, keeps giving. Most organisations are better at protecting their comfort than their creativity. Those are very different things.

The Hollywood Reporter took a look at how cable news networks are warming up to “hybrid” deals that allow their TV talent to launch their own independent media channels:. I’ve seen several critiques of these “hybrid” deals arguing that TV networks are no longer building their own IP, but instead are helping grow audiences for creator-led channels that can easily walk away once their contracts expire. I’m not sure I fully agree. For one, these networks are simply succumbing to the reality that many of their top anchors could easily peel off to launch their own ventures, so it’s better to create the incentives that will keep them in-house. Secondly, I think “talent arbitrage” is a completely legitimate media business model. Both the media and book industries, for instance, are built around the idea of partnering with creators who can then leave for competitors the moment that an album or book contract expires. These companies succeed by creating the right monetary and marketing incentives to keep the most valuable talent happy. There’s plenty that a network like CNN and MSNOW can offer to keep its talent in the fold; it’s just a matter of aligning those incentives. https://lnkd.in/eBaK8NAi

If you are buying your media based on CPP or CPM you are missing the boat. With all of the tools available to pinpoint a relevant audience, why spend your budget on reaching the 94% who are not currently in-market? Let's start a CPE revolution..... Cost Per Engagement

What To Watch This Week: 50+ Premieres, Finales, And More: TVLine offers a look at the week ahead: A handy roundup of new TV premieres and finales to help you plan your viewing for May 3-May 9.http://dlvr.it/TSLDWL The post What To Watch This Week: 50+ Premieres, Finales, And More first appeared on Media Solutions in BlackNewss Diversity. #blacknews #blackstories #blackandproud http://dlvr.it/TSLFFr #blacknewsupdates #blackpower #blackbusinesses