following a loss leader playbook<\/a> by using Prime Video inventory to entice larger investment by advertisers on its DSP.<\/p>\nBy autumn next year, those supply and demand equations may reverse. With one player removed from the game, and Netflix\u2019s inventory (and the audiences it draws in) strengthened, so too will be its negotiating hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect this would put upward pressure on CPMs and stall out some of the advertiser-friendly trends we\u2019ve seen recently,\u201d added Browne.<\/p>\n
A Paramount acquisition would likely have similar \u2013 if less pronounced effects on pricing, given a merger between the two companies would create a smaller media concern than Netflix and Warner Bros. combined.<\/p>\n
\u201cNetflix is the leader [in streaming], so to the extent that they win this, it sets them up in a more dominant position and gives them a lot more pricing power vs. a more competitive market, if Paramount gets it,\u201d said Chris Rigas, vp of media at performance media agency Markacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would mean that there were a larger number of \u2018major\u2019 players, so on-net, I think that leads to less upward CPM pressure,\u201d said Browne.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to knock the benefits, as far as brands are concerned, of a WBD-Paramount alliance. Though Pluto TV and Paramount+ chase the pack in streaming, a combined company would pool a huge linear TV business together \u2013 including CBS, various Turner networks (including CNN), Discovery networks and Comedy Central, among others \u2013 and offer advertisers unified measurement across a huge range of media properties and audiences.<\/p>\n
Netflix and HBO Max\u2019s combined ad tech stacks could provide a more convenient gateway to their audiences, cutting down on the time spent by buyers getting brands in front of the public. \u201cAt a minimum, Netflix will offer a bundle with HBO Max akin to what Disney does with Hulu \u2014 relieving users of some cost burden,\u201d Proulx suggested.<\/p>\n
But if CPMs are to rise, advertisers and buyers will want to know they\u2019re getting value for their money. \u200b\u200bNetflix\u2019s native ads and brand placements have impressed in recent years, noted Markacy co-founder and co-CEO Tucker Matheson.<\/p>\n
Being able to use those formats against WBD\u2019s inventory would add some sheen to its premium stock of films and TV, while continued development would help to justify any rise in prices and keep brands on side.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew forms of ad placement \u2014 innovation \u2014 is probably mostly what we want to see,\u201d said Matheson.<\/p>\n
Others suggest a finalised deal will bring further demands from advertisers already concerned over CTV transparency. \u201cScale alone won\u2019t justify premium pricing. Without verifiable performance, the market isn\u2019t paying a markup just because you own a massive content library,\u201d said\u00a0Skyler McGill, head of video and programmatic, Wpromote, in an email.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsolidation forces transparency. Buyers will demand clean supply paths with actual accountability. It\u2019s not about who has the most inventory anymore. It\u2019s about who can build the most interoperable ecosystem. The acquirer has to choose between staying in a walled garden or rebuilding to become something that is performance-ready. Only one of those paths wins long term,\u201d added McGill.<\/p>\n
Either a Paramount-WBD merger preserving the market\u2019s price competitiveness, or an empowered Netflix leaning hard on eyeballs and time spent to justify rising costs, hold advantages for brands. Each one\u2019s subject to regulatory and political caveats, however.<\/p>\n
\u201cA very strong regulatory challenge is inevitable here \u2026 With so many different stakeholder groups pushing back \u2026 Netflix faces an uphill battle convincing regulators to approve a deal like this,\u201d said John Conca, analyst at Third Bridge, in an email.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s political ones, too. Despite President Donald Trump signalling he holds no preference between Paramount and Netflix as owners, the FTC has been active this year in extracting concessions aligned with the White House\u2019s priorities from companies awaiting merger approval \u2013 Omnicom and IPG\u2019s deal being one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netflix and Paramount\u2019s competing bids for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) will dominate the next act of the streaming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[103937,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-177175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-business-of-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}