Advertisers are shifting their focus from traditional TV to streaming services, according to a new survey by UBS Evidence Lab.
The report points to TV declines and rising CTV/Netflix (NFLX) momentum. UBS surveyed 120 marketing professionals in the U.S. and Western Europe.
"TV spending intent remains under pressure," UBS said. They found that over the next two years, 55% of respondents plan to decrease spending on TV, compared to only 31% who expect to increase it.
This is a slight decline from last year's survey when the figures were a 50% decrease and a 31% increase.
The bank says this trend reflects a broader shift toward digital advertising. UBS reports that "~73% plan to shift ad budgets away from TV over the next 24 months," with 32% indicating a "major" shift. This is up slightly from last year's survey results (70% total shift, 21% major shift).
However, sports programming remains a bright spot for traditional TV. According to UBS, "~60% increased spend on sports programming over the past 12 months, and 60%+ plan to increase their budget allocation to sports in the next year."
However, the future of TV advertising seems to lie in streaming services, particularly Connected TV (CTV). The survey found that "75% of respondents plan to increase CTV spend over the next year," up from 71% last year.
Amongst streaming platforms, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) appears to be the favorite. "Netflix saw the most significant improvement in favorability amongst CTV platforms vs. last year's survey," writes UBS. This is likely due to the expansion of their ad tier and the increasing availability of live programming. Notably, 56% of respondents indicated they plan to increase ad spend on Netflix, compared to 60% for YouTube and 50% for Hulu.