Industry Insights: Consumers in the US and UK spend up to 11 hours a day with 11.5 different media platforms a week. Plus Disney and TikTok share content, Netflix ad upfront double, and more.
UK and US Consumers Build Increasingly Diverse Media Diets
Consumers in the US and the UK now spend close to half of all their time engaging with media, according to new research. Ampere Analysis says that almost 11 hours a day are spent with different platforms, exactly what is used when varying during the day.
Streaming services attract the highest levels of daily engagement at one hour and 57 minutes, followed by social media at one hour and 46 minutes. In third place is YouTube, which is popular enough to be broken out into a category all of its own and accounts for one hour and 35 minutes.
The total includes simultaneous activities, such as using a smartphone while watching television.
“Rather than competing directly, different media fulfill different needs,” says Broadband TV News. “Streaming services are most closely associated with relaxation and immersive viewing, YouTube is used for discovery and mood enhancement, while social media is primarily used to relieve boredom or provide distraction.”
Unsurprisingly, media habits also vary significantly by age. These tend to divide as you would expect, with older audiences spending more time with streaming services, linear television, and live sport. Generation Alpha meanwhile spends the most time on YouTube and gaming, while Generation Z concentrates its time more on social media and music streaming.
The net result is an average of 11.5 different media platforms each week (13.6 for Generation Alpha). Mobile devices remain an important part of the mix across most of the platforms, accounting for 28% of Netflix use and a third of YouTube viewing.
Disney and TikTok Announce Content-Sharing Deal
Disney is rapidly emerging as one of the most forward-thinking of the major media companies when it comes to working with the emerging creator market. The partnership with OpenAI that would have seen its video-oriented AI, Sora, generate short-form content from Disney IP might have failed, but it’s trying again with TikTok.
Initially piloting in the US, the deal will see participating TikTok creators granted access to “assets related to hundreds of films and series from Disney’s vast library,” including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and more.
One important thing to note is that it is not a free-for-all, rather it seems to be a carefully curated program. “Through the jointly-run Disney Creator Ambassador Program, Disney and TikTok will enable best-in-class creators to unlock special rewards and provide them with increased visibility, access to exclusive events and career development pathways,” writes Disney. Content is also being made simultaneously available on TikTok and Disney+’s Verts content section that launched back in March
It is hard not to see at least some editorial control being exercised here before publication, but potentially it is a very smart move. The new vertical channels beloved of streaming companies are going to require fresh content to be successful. Ensuring that is both user-generated to save costs and some of the most popular IP in modern media to kickstart engagement seems to square a fairly difficult circle.
Netflix Nearly Doubles Ad Commitments
[Netflix]
Netflix’s march towards being an ad-supported business as well as a subscriber-based one continues. The company concluded its 2026 Upfront sales in the US with deals from “all major agency partners” that “nearly doubled our ad commitments this year,” according to Netflix president of advertising Amy Reinhard.
The growth comes from new programming, with Reinhard specifically mentioning live events such as the company’s NFL games and the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which the company has exclusive rights for across the US and Canada.
“We’ve sold out of game sponsorships and nearly sold out of all available in-game inventory,” she says.
A decent cast of returning favorites also helps, with Bridgerton, Emily in Paris, Nobody Wants This, and Running Point all back soon.
Netflix has also worked hard on building out its ad tech stack. New features include:
- CTV Marketplace and DSP-Initiated deals extend programmatic buying so that partners can transact with Netflix through any of the demand-side platforms they already use across Google Display & Video 360, Amazon, Yahoo, or The Trade Desk.
- Pause Ads are now available to buy programmatically across all DSPs. The Netflix Ads Suite also offers advertisers AI-creative tooling that generates pause ad formats from existing assets.
- Conversion, Reach, and Audience APIs offer advertisers AI-driven tooling to drive results. “We’re already seeing great traction, as these tools optimize buys in real time.”
- Recently expanded interactive formats including ‘Send to Phone’ and Frame Ads.
TV Station Loses Access to 70 Years of Archive
[Gizmodo]
Finally, a cautionary tale about who you choose to work with in the modern cloud-based TV ecosystem.
Nine PBS in St. Louis, Missouri filed a lawsuit last month against Denver-based Iron Mountain Data Centers in an attempt to recover more than 50 terabytes of archival material.
The lawsuit says that the station’s archives, more than 70 years of material, became inaccessible after its cloud storage provider, Open Source Storage (OSS), abruptly cut off access to the data and apparently went bankrupt earlier this year. Iron Mountain acknowledges that the data is there in its vaults, but says that OSS (or presumably now its creditors) owns the infrastructure that it resides on and, as of time of writing, has declined to give it back.
The moral of the story? Work with companies such as us. And always keep backups.
