Presented by

DAVID BLOOM: And so StreamTV Show ‘26 began in earnest, with a rapid-fire morning Wednesday featuring notables opining on where streaming platforms and services are headed next. I was most struck by Wurl CEO Dave Bernath’s solo presentation, detailing the FAST industry’s truly broken nature. Platforms, by his accounting, appear committed to wringing every dollar, and perhaps every neck, of the content owners just trying make money from their channels.

Still makin’ Thursday StreamTV plans? Check out the full Thursday show itinerary here.

Payouts per hour have steadily declined, content creators are struggling, and the anonymized comments Bernath highlighted suggest platform operators almost maliciously don’t care, as they withhold helpful data and “squeeze all the money out of the content providers.” As Bernath put it in response to that line: “Is this like a streaming executive or a mob boss talking?” Indeed. FAST’s frantic gold rush of newcomers in recent years is likely partly to blame. After all, if six newcomers are ready to replace the provider you’re squeezing, why worry about treating the incumbent equitably?

Bernath’s suggestions for sustainable improvements are spot-on: share the freakin’ data; pay a bog-standard 70-30 split, like an app store; and for goodness’ sake, collaborate to build a widely supported currency that measures success and anchors payments. But also, “apply the thumbs of fairness,” which is not from The Princess Bride (though it totally should be). Rather, share the platform spotlight with your providers, so they all get a boost of visibility. The providers have some responsibilities too, including investing in technology for their operations, and most of all, making original content. “If you’re not creating content for a platform, you can't grow it,” Bernath said. “I think this is actually profound. No one is expecting FAST channels to sponsor a new Breaking Bad, but there’s not even a budget for the next Rap Battles.” Bernath showed a graph of a large channel’s viewership with a sudden 3X jump when said thumbs were applied (see above). But just as dramatically, it also showed a concomitant plunge when the thumb came off. Those thumbs make a big difference, as The Trade Desk’s Ventura OS execs have proclaimed steadily during the show. Changes may be coming soon, though. Below are a couple of more snaps of Bernath slides from his presentation. The economics, compared to traditional outlets, are ugly. The prescription for building a more sustainable ecosystem, not easy, but boy, it sure seems necessary and overdue.

BLOOM CONTINUED: Bernath also shared off-the-record conversations suggesting YouTube may soon do the next most obvious thing in the world after Fox-Roku, dropping a couple of billion bucks to launch a serious FAST operation. Maybe then this Wild, Wild West will clean out the bad hombres, and build a fairer ecosystem where everybody eats a decent meal. You know, just like with those 3 million partner creators on YouTube who get paid regularly, as YouTube’s soon-to-depart VP, Americas Tara Walpert Levy talked about in her fireside conversation just before Bernath’s presentation. It can happen.

SHOW DAILY WRAP-UP
You know the ol’ saying, you can pair two savvy media-tech marketers at a B2B event, but you can’t make ‘em talk. We didn’t have that problem with DirecTV CMO Vince Torres and Akta Chief Evangelist Matt Smith.

BEVIN FLETCHER: On the the thread of platform players and their thumbs, an OS leaders’ roundtable Wednesday focused on controlling the home screen, where providers are balancing the interests of users, content partners and advertisers. Here the question arose of ads and intrusiveness on the viewing experience when the first thing at hand is served up. Comcast/Xumo’s Hong Kwon emphasized that “intent is critical” — when you pair intent with ads, that’s when there’s click- or view-through and results. Without it, platforms can hurt the experience.

PARTNER INSIGHTS
As Sun Tzu once said, know what’s inside your enemy’s content library, but first try to understand what’s in your own. Sure, we made that up … But we’re not wrong, as this deck from Reelgood Founder and CEO David Sanderson reveals.

FLETCHER CONTINUED: And as you mentioned, Ventura TV OS has been sharing their take this week. I spoke with The Trade Desk’s Rob Caruso, part of the same panel. While Ventura doesn’t have a content play, there might be a misconception that an OS from an ad-tech company is keen to fill home screens and other crannies with as much advertising as possible. But Caruso dismissed this notion, saying it’s more nuanced. The relevancy of ads, getting the right ads to the right person, is critical. Otherwise, it creates friction or a bad user experience, which ultimately hurts the advertiser, the OEM partner and possibly the lifetime value of that TV user, who might churn out if bombarded with irrelevant ads. Caruso told me that when the right ads are served to the right audiences, it can mean fewer ads. There’s a beneficial trade off between lower reach and impressions in favor of what advertisers increasingly seek: Better outcomes and ROI.

FLETCHER CONTINUED: It is worth noting that while executives are speaking about their thesis here and elsewhere, the Ventura OS isn’t commercially deployed with any named OEM partners yet. TTD won’t make devices itself, but Caruso said The Trade Desk is pursuing its independent TVOS with a long-term view. TV replacement cycles average 5-7 years. It takes time for potential OEM partners to make a change and for that change to manifest. But Ventura is finding receptivity in the market, especially for redistributing more ad revenue to OEM partners and cleaning up the supply chain to be more equitable for all the stakeholders. Ultimately, broader participation and value extraction benefit TTD’s DSP whenever that cycle gets going. No breaking news here, but Caruso did say he hopes to have more to share by year end.

DANIEL FRANKEL: This all sounds riveting, but I must admit over the course of long career, I’ve had some of my deepest, most restorative REM sleep while (trying to) spectate M&E panel events. That all changes this morning. Here me now, believe me later, the 10:20 a.m. session “Syncing the Streams: Optimizing the Fan Experience in a Fragmented Sports World” will be the StreamTV Generation’s Woodstock. Your grandkids will ask you if you were in the Gaylord’s Juniper Ballroom in Denver when important denizens representing the under-examined — and betrayed! — realm of bar-and-restaurant live sports entertainment stood up to the unimaginably powerful forces of Roger Goodell and declared, “What if we’re not ready to stream?” Seriously, with NFL Sunday Ticket available streaming-only per league decree when the NFL kicks off in 83 short days, literally thousands of establishments across this … country of ours won’t yet have their pucks, dongles and sticks in a row. For a lot of reasons, Buffalo Wild Wings can’t just run to Best Buy and pick up a few Roku sticks for its 1,200-plus locations. It’s not that simple. This is a brewing media-tech crisis about to hit the two-minute warning. Behind it is a secretive cabal trying to keep us from our God-given right to enjoy America’s game with our Mango Habaneros and craft beer. We all need to be there. For each other.

PARTNER INSIGHTS
In Part 3 of our four-part discussion with Akta Chief Evangelist Matt Smith, we examine the benefits of native AI integration into workflows versus the half-measure of ‘bolted-on’ solutions

BLOOM: Speaking, again, of Fox buying/merging with Roku, Tubi’s long-time Chief Creative Officer, Adam Lewinson said “for now, it’s just business as usual” for the ad-supported market leader. What’s notable is how much more of that business includes original content from Tubi (further validating Bernath’s make-more-stuff prescription). I’ve been interviewing Lewinson since long before the pandemic, when Fox bought a promising but still largely nascent Tubi for a bargain-basement $440 million. Until August’s launch of Fox One, Tubi was the biggest part of Fox’s post-cable strategy, 95% of its viewing coming through ad-supported on-demand programming. “It’s about fueling fandoms,” Lewinson said. “The monoculture we grew up in really doesn't exist anymore. It’s been fractionalized into fandoms. The next evolution of streaming is about quality engagement.”

And quality engagement comes from shows people want to watch, backed by a deep array of library content once those fans dive into “the rabbit hole.” These days, original content is a very big part of Lewinson’s broader strategy. That includes heavily watched live streams of the first U.S. and Mexico World Cup matches, and a broad array of originals made with YouTube creators. Lewinson caught my ear telling his interlocutor where the next Tom Cruise is likely to come from, especially after recent box-office hits such as Iron Lung, Obsession and Backrooms, all directed by YouTube-first creative talent. Listen to the clip above for more.

FLETCHER: Some personnel news broke on stage during Radial Entertainment CEO Jeff Shultz’s keynote - he announced that the company has tapped Sony Pictures veteran Carrie Ferman as Chief Operating Officer. It’s Radial’s newest exec since Oaktree Capital merged holdings FilmRise and Shout! Studios. (Check out my exclusive interview with Radial investment chief David Buoymaster earlier in the week here.) During the keynote, Shultz said he believes streaming’s second act will be about three things: Data, discipline and profitability. Radial intends to invest hundreds of millions in content acquisition with backing and capital from its PE owners. For those in content and entertainment amid much evolution and change: Don’t chase trends. Instead, focus on what’s durable and sustainable over the long run.  

FLETCHER CONTINUED: I also want to give a special shoutout and congratulations to the wonderful winners of the 2026 StreamTV Awards, who were crowned at the Big Bash! See the full roster below:

Marketing Campaign of the Year: “The Holidays Are Brutal” by Pluto TV

Two of the night’s bigger trophies — the StreamTV Impact Award and Streaming Platform of the Year — were won by a company everyone’s been talking about this week, one poised for new ownership. More hints: It just had its first major home-screen revamp in a decade, it launched an affordable ad-free SVOD that attracted an estimated 1 million subscribers within eight months, and it already counts 100 million streaming households

We’re have, er, bated breath just telling you click on the answer.

Visit AKTA to see how AI transforms video streaming, FAST scheduling, playout & monetization.

FRANKEL: I’ll just close things out with an Irony of the Day: I was in the Embers Lodge Bar, indignant after being stood up by my 3:30. Turns it was me who goofed the calendar invite. My self-righteous hit of sweet dopamine-fueled outrage was welcomed, nonetheless. I even washed it down with five minutes of hot World Cup action, highlighted by Marcus Rashford putting England up 4-2 over Croatia with a goal at the 85-minute mark. Literally five seconds went by before patrons (Londoners?) at the adjacent Mountain Pass bar screamed out in delight. I suppose, in the scheme of things, five seconds isn’t a terrible latency differential. I mean, that’s what StreamTV is for, right? — to work these bugs out.

Department of corrections: