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Marketers in the US are no longer testing the waters with streaming TV – they’re diving in headfirst. Australia’s Connected TV (CTV) market might be smaller and younger in comparison, but we’re fast heading in the same direction, says Samsung Ads ANZ head of sales Richard Wheeler.
TV audiences streaming ahead
Among US Samsung Smart TV households, streaming increased to nearly 60 percent of total viewing time in 2025 – and ad dollars have kept up with the shifting eyeballs.
Just two years ago, CTV advertising accounted for less than a third of total TV ad spend in the US. Fast forward to today, and streaming investment has overtaken linear, with ad dollars shifting rapidly. In the next few years, seven out of every ten TV ad dollars are expected to flow into streaming.
Closer to home, among Australian Samsung Smart TV households, streaming now accounts for 71 percent of total viewing time – up from a 50/50 split just five years ago. Ad-supported streaming has also overtaken linear TV in these homes. And the trend is accelerating: three in ten new Samsung TV owners aren’t even connecting their TVs to an antenna.
The pace of CTV adoption in Australia is staggering: streaming is redefining TV itself. The revolution is creating big advertising opportunities – and challenges – for Australian brands, but is the industry ready to dive in?
Time to rebalance budgets
To succeed in today’s TV landscape, brands need to meet audiences where they’re watching.
However, while Australian consumers have adopted streaming at a much faster rate than other markets, ad dollars have been slower to follow suit. Many marketers continue to grapple with how much budget should be allocated to streaming. One of the biggest misconceptions fuelling this caution is that brands need to increase their budgets to reach new audiences.
The reality, however, is that they simply need to rebalance it.
A study we conducted with Nielsen last year revealed that shifting 30 percent of a campaign’s TV budget to streaming maximises reach and efficiency without increasing overall spend. More recent research from the Video Futures Collective (VFC) suggests that investing 40 percent of total video spend in streaming across all devices could significantly boost business outcomes.
A blended strategy across linear and streaming can drive better results. But, ultimately, those who find the sweet spot today will be able to adapt quicker as audience behaviour continues to evolve.
Ad-tiers unlocking the unreachables
While the pace of change across the TV landscape can feel overwhelming for marketers, there’s good news. The rise of ad-supported (AVoD) tiers and free streaming platforms has unlocked previously unreachable streaming audiences.
Until just a couple of years ago, over half of all time spent streaming on Samsung Smart TVs took place in paid, ad-free environments. Now, these environments are starting to contract, according to Kantar, with SVOD services reaching four percent less households than 12 months ago. What’s more, advertisers can access around 40 to 50 percent of once unreachable SVOD subscribers via ad-supported tiers. Netflix alone says it already has over 300 million ad-with-fee subscribers globally. With the growth of these platforms outpacing paid, ad-free services, the opportunity to engage new audiences is only increasing.
Ads are the future for many streaming platforms because they offer the quickest path to profitability and early indications show the strategy is paying off. According to Kantar’s latest Entertainment on Demand Barometer, half of new subscribers are now opting for ad-funded options, while the popularity of these affordable services has aided the growth in ‘stacking’. Thirty-one percent of AVoD customers now hold five or more VoD subscriptions.
TV’s tipping point
All eyes are on ad-supported streaming right now as competition ramps up, streaming players hike their ad-free prices, linear reach continues to decline and the streaming measurement debate gains pace.
Looking ahead, we could soon see a shift where linear – rather than streaming – becomes the incremental reach for TV advertising campaigns in Australia. For marketers, this means ad-supported streaming is no longer just an add-on but a crucial channel for reaching audiences at scale.
The future of TV advertising is flexible, addressable and measurable, and those who adapt early will be the ones leading the next era of TV marketing.
Richard Wheeler is the head of sales at Samsung Ads ANZ.
