This year saw several major M&A deals draw to a close (including MFE and ProSieben, Paramount and Skydance, and Omnicom and IPG), but a new wave of mergers are on the horizon for next year, potentially between Sky and ITV, and Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix (or possibly Paramount). At the same time, AI is reshaping media buying, as advertisers call for renewed transparency in ad sales, and Big Tech platforms continue to hoover up video budgets.
With these trends already impacting the industry, VideoWeek asked six analysts for their predictions for 2026 across media, video and TV advertising.
Adam Thomas, Practice Leader, Media, Entertainment & Advertising, Omdia
Our forecasts show that online video advertising is going to be the big growth area in 2026, with much of that growth generated by a handful of digital giants like Google and Meta. However, when we look at the paid-for streaming segment in isolation, we find the picture is quite different and we expect subscriptions to remain the cornerstone of the sector’s revenue model next year, accounting for almost 90 percent of revenues generated by the premium streamers.
Despite the rollout of advertising tiers, ad-supported will take a less than 10 percent revenue share. While that figure will increase a little looking ahead, growth levels will be nowhere near the stellar levels seen in other advertising categories. Omdia therefore views the ad revenues being generated in the premium segment as a welcome additional revenue stream, but not a crucial one for 2026 and beyond.
Omdia further predicts that sentiment towards AI, and its use within the media and entertainment business, will evolve in 2026. The severe opposition to it that has been prevalent in recent years will remain in some quarters.
However, alongside that opposition, we expect there will be a growing pragmatic acceptance that using legal challenges to try to halt and reverse some of AI’s more controversial aspects – such as involving itself in the creative process and using copyrighted IP to train itself – will come to be perceived as a losing battle. Instead, the emphasis will change to extracting the maximum revenue benefit from those processes, rather than fighting a symbolic battle that will ultimately be lost.
Katie Butcher, Director and Strategy & Media Operations Specialist, PwC
As we look to next year, AI will be the engine reshaping TV and video advertising. Industry forecasts show continued growth in CTV, but the real step-change is AI across planning, creative and measurement. Generative tools will enable dynamic storytelling at scale; versioning assets, localising and optimising in-flight under brand guardrails.
On screen, streaming services and addressable solutions will increasingly use AI to refine targeting and frequency, while retailer data partnerships are expected to close the loop and make shoppable video practical.
Publishers and creators will apply AI to curate free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) line-ups, surface catalogues, personalise sports, and scale brand-safe integrations – signalling how machine learning can match consumers, formats and commerce. Agencies will pivot to outcome-led buying, leveraging clean rooms, attention models and AI-driven marketing mix modelling (MMM) to unify linear, CTV and social.
The competitive edge will be trusted AI: privacy-first data, audited measurement and transparent supply paths.
Matt Trickett, Head of Media, Ampere Analysis
Netflix’s agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, and a subsequent counter bid from Paramount, has been the centerpiece story of 2025. This will trigger a reaction from other major players. We can expect more aggressive bidding for premium rights from the key aggregators, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube (which is already starting to move up the content value chain) and potentially more moves to acquire content or network assets for the likes of Disney and Comcast.
All key players (outside of YouTube) need a response to the rise of social video viewing time. This is likely to take two forms: a) more aggressive movement of content creator talent into the established media space; b) more short-form content in the mix with long-form content on streaming services.
Most major streamers are scaling an advertising business. Currently, ad loads for the ad tiers of global streamers, even in the US, are subscale. Further, data from Ampere Analysis’s Streaming Advertising product points to ad loads in UK services being around half those of US equivalents. We can expect ad loads to double across markets in 2026 as media owners look for revenue equilibrium with paid-only tiers.
In sport, 2026 could be the year we see more comprehensive aggregation of key rights, through a combination of single players in markets, partnerships and bundles. Key sports rights have become highly fragmented, and this is undoubtedly feeding high levels of piracy. An industry-led approach, formulating a service that meets the consumer requirement of discovery at one price point, would be extremely well-positioned for growth.
Katerina Naddaf, Insights Analyst Manager, Parrot Analytics
In 2026, streaming should see a noticeable lift in ad dollars, mainly because more sports viewing is moving from linear TV to streaming. As leagues and big sports properties keep expanding their streaming deals and offerings, they’ll move more high-attention viewing from linear TV to streaming. Sports is especially important here because it drives regular, live, repeat viewing and keeps audiences coming back week after week. That kind of consistent engagement makes streaming inventory more attractive and supports higher-value ad placements.
Luke Stillman, Managing Director, Madison & Wall
The market keeps outperforming sentiment. Despite weak consumer confidence and persistent policy headwinds, both marketers and consumers continue to spend. That disconnect has now lasted longer than expected, and the underlying strength appears set to carry into 2026.
AI anxiety is misdirected. There is broad industry concern about how AI will reshape advertising, but we believe marketer budgets for search, social, and commerce remain largely insulated. The bigger disruption risk sits with content owners and publishers, which already make up a smaller share of total ad revenues.
Black-box, AI-powered platforms are pulling in incremental dollars. Brands frequently say they want more transparency and control, yet their spending behaviour suggests something else: they are prioritising price and performance above all.
Sean McGuire, Director of Investment & Strategy, Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates
The Sky/ITV merger not only happens, but is the first step on a long overdue overhaul of the UK’s TV ad trading model. A model which relies on a backward-looking calculation of “average” price (an average from which everyone receives a discount), share deals, and an arcane piece of regulation [contract rights renewal (CRR)] that was meant to be a short-term fix in 2003 is not fit for purpose in the IP-connected, data-driven, outcome-oriented ad market of the next decade.
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