Connected TV (CTV) devices and streaming services have seen substantial growth, particularly in countries like the U.S., where they‘ve become the most popular viewing method. However, this development doesn‘t signal the end of traditional TV. On the other hand, traditional TV has shown remarkable resilience in the face of digital competition, as per a Nielsen report.
In markets like Poland, traditional TV viewership remains strong and continues to dominate viewing time, with only about 8% of time spent streaming in the first-half of 2024. Even in the U.S., where streaming made up about 40% of audiences’ total TV time during the same period, 77% of homes were reached by CTV devices—indicating further room for growth. This contrast between Poland and the U.S. illustrates the varied pace of this transition globally.
The trend suggests that global media strategies need to be nuanced and adaptable. While much of media’s growth lies in digital platforms, the present reality is a complex environment where both traditional and digital platforms coexist and serve different viewer preferences.
Retail media advertising is evolving rapidly, expanding beyond simple sponsored listings to encompass a full-funnel approach with on-site displays and off-site ads. This evolution aligns with the growing importance of retail media in global marketing strategies, as evidenced by Nielsen‘s 2024 Annual Marketing Report, which found that 68% of global marketers consider retail media more crucial to their strategies than in the previous year.
Across various markets, the spend on retail media advertising is increasing. Amazon ad spend in Japan aligns with this, showing consistent month-over-month growth. However, this upward trend is not uniform across all industry segments. In the U.K., about a third of top electronics advertisers allocate 20% of
media budgets to Amazon—in contrast, 12 of the 30 leading cosmetics brands spend very little there.
The effectiveness of retail media networks is closely tied to specific industry dynamics, target audiences and marketing objectives. Hence, simply attempting to keep pace with perceived industry trends may not yield optimal results.
A significant generational shift is reshaping global media consumption habits, with younger generations across the globe embracing digital media while older generations maintain a preference for traditional TV.
In the U.S., viewers aged 2-34 spend over 60% of their total TV time on streaming services. In Thailand, Gen Z reports the lowest traditional
TV viewership at 47%, favoring digital options, while the 55+ demographic reports the highest at 62%.
But this is only part of the picture. Older viewers tend to watch a lot more total TV than their younger counterparts, so the 75% U.S. viewers 65+ spend with linear TV adds up to a lot more hours. There is a similar trend in Thailand with all media types having greater total reach with older audiences than younger generations.
This trend is reshaping not just how content is consumed, but how it‘s produced, distributed and monetised on a worldwide scale. As digital natives come of age, they‘re ushering in an era dominated by on-demand streaming services, mobile viewing and personalised content algorithms. But the media industry will also need to continue to account for older generations who can be heavy consumers of media and maintain their allegiance to more traditional forms.