“The next era of short-form content is upon us and it’s in the form of bite-sized TV. Micro dramas, inspired by China’s Duanju, are short video stories taking the world by storm. The format is commanding sizable ad dollars in the process, tracking to hit $11 billion in global revenues this year alone! Global blue-chip advertisers are experimenting with creative activations like custom-branded series and interactive e-commerce. Next year is poised to be even bigger with a growing number of platforms, creators and brands hopping on the next viral craze.” – Pamela Duckworth, Head of Fubo Studios, Fubo

“We expect creators to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Hollywood as the new stars of television and streaming. Creator-led series will not only rival studio productions in audience hours but also earn prestigious industry recognition. The next generation of ‘TV stars’ will be creators like Mark Rober, Dhar Mann and Michelle Khare, which marks a cultural and economic turning point. For advertisers, this evolution opens an entirely new world of opportunity.” – Takashi Nakano, Vice President, Content and Programming, Samsung TV Plus

“2026 will be a year of meaningful progress tempered by uneven execution. Generative AI will deliver tangible value in creative production, led by pioneering brands already proving what is possible, while the broader agentic future will require continued investment, collaboration, and standardization.” – Anthony Katsur, CEO, IAB Tech Lab

“CTV is heading into a more predictable phase. Marketers are treating it less like an experimental line item and more like a reliable performance driver. Planning, supply transparency, and measurable outcomes are becoming the bar. Buyers will expect CTV inventory to be largely programmatic, interactive formats to feel standard, and live sports to behave like a measurable, repeatable investment.” – Joshua John, Head of Strategy, Yahoo DSP

“The FAST space is slated to mature as the days of launching a ‘whatever we can license’ channel are over. In 2026, volume for volume’s sake is out; editorial vision, thematic cohesion, and audience intention are in. Viewers are no longer grazing – they’re looking for streaming with a point of view. Expect a rise in creator-led channels, lifestyle verticals, and brand-aligned experiences that feel more like destinations than dumping grounds. Live content, especially news and sports, will show up more in FAST, but not as standalone plays. It will come wrapped in the infrastructure of trusted AVOD platforms where distribution, data, and audience already live.” – David Di Lorenzo, SVP of Kids & Family, Future Today

“As AI-driven workflows become the industry norm, hybrid studios will become the new standard for production: AI will sit at the center of modern production pipelines, unifying creative development, VFX, design, live action, and post into a single continuous process. As expectations shift toward faster iteration, more ambitious world-building, and scalable personalisation, brands will turn to studios built to operate this way.” – Rupert Cresswell, Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder, Elevado

“AI search will require us to rethink organic and paid search to make sure we’re optimizing for current trends.” – Tim Hemingway, SVP, Commerce, Havas Market North America

“As casual gaming continues to expand, 2026 could mark a turning point for Netflix’s games strategy. With high-profile talent attached to promote and legitimize its titles, Netflix has the opportunity to turn a simple, accessible game into a shared, living-room phenomenon – akin to the cultural moment created by Wordle.” – Jason Platt Zolov, Senior Consultant, Hub Entertainment Research

“In the past year there was significant progress in the Outcomes space, as we learned how to better quantify the way ads drive business results. That will grow even more in 2026, as Nielsen continues to connect measurement and outcomes in insightful new ways. As advertisers face pressure to get maximum value from every dollar they spend across all media, this will help the industry protect its billion dollar investments.” – Nichole Henderson, SVP, Global Product, Nielsen

“Over time, we’ve seen FAST channels become go-to for audiences seeking live, scheduled programming outside of traditional cable packages. Between first- and fourth-quarter 2025, the number of new FAST channels increased by nearly 24%. Sports, a major driver of audience engagement, are a big part of that growth story, as dedicated sports channels increased by more than 26% through November. And what’s more notable, especially for advertisers, is the amount of new, live sports being distributed across FAST channels. In November 2025, 37% of the sports content on FAST channels was new, live airings. Looking to 2026 and beyond, we definitely expect this trend to continue.” – Tyler Bell, SVP Product, Gracenote

“Engagement metrics like DAU and MAU will guide platform decision-making over the next few years. These metrics determine where content investments go and how platforms prioritize product improvements. Pricing experimentation will continue, especially as consumers feel more pressure and shift toward ad-supported tiers. FAST channels are also growing quickly and have a simple value exchange that resonates with viewers. This category could become a major part of the streaming landscape as more platforms invest in it.” – Julie Clark, SVP of Media and Entertainment, TransUnion

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“Startups are outperforming legacy platforms due to their agility and cultural fluency. This shift will drive a new wave of M&A activity in 2026. Just as holding companies once acquired influencer agencies to buy credibility, they’ll now seek out AI startups that offer clarity – tools that decode what people feel before they act. The value won’t be in the data alone, but in the cultural intelligence behind it.” – Crystal Foote, Founder and Head of Partnerships, Digital Culture Group

Which deals made news in the adtech world last year? AdExchanger offers a comprehensive list of who bought what – and why.

“2026 will be the year publishers fully embrace their evolution into full-fledged Data-as-a-Service companies. The rise of AI-driven search and generative content has triggered a dramatic collapse in site traffic, eroding the value of traditional ad models and forcing publishers to reimagine their business foundations.” – Jaime Schultheis, Head of Global Data Partnerships, Bombora

“For years, LLMs were trained on the same firehose of internet content. That era is ending. In 2026, models begin to meaningfully diverge because companies will increasingly rely on their own proprietary data, or data they have quietly acquired, not the shared corpus that fueled the first wave of generative AI. Real competitive advantage will come from how well a model understands a specific domain – not how many parameters it has.” – Ismael Wrixen, CEO, ThriveCart

“In 2026, ad ops teams can finally focus on strategy – if they can delegate execution to machines. Operators define the rules, the constraints, and the goals. Agents take those inputs and execute across platforms continuously. With agentic orchestration, specially trained agents parse operator intent and act on it.” – Frans Vermeulen, President, Swivel

“The industry is moving beyond clicks and impressions. Attention measured through time-in-view, creative resonance and contextual alignment is becoming the new performance signal. This is the first step towards real outcome-based models, where success will be determined by the consumer’s response, not the platform’s metric.” – Oscar Rondon, Vice President, Data and Measurement Solutions, Nexxen