Ad loads on streaming services today are a fraction of what viewers once endured on linear television.
While cable and broadcast typically pack in 12 to 16 minutes of commercials per hour, most streaming platforms hover between four and eight minutes per hour, according to a March report from the connected television company Wurl.
That lighter experience has been central to the appeal of streaming, executives from four major streaming services told ADWEEK. But that limitation is self-imposed. There are no regulations dictating ad load—the only guardrails come from consumer tolerance and market norms.
That freedom, combined with the sophisticated technology available in CTV, has led streaming companies to experiment with optimizing the ad loads they present to viewers in ways that were previously impossible. Streaming companies now must balance these new tools with the overall viewer experience, executives and analysts said.
“Excessive ad load is part of what incentivized people to leave cable in the first place,” said one executive. “We don’t want to repeat that mistake.”
Alongside other innovations in the ecosystem, such as enhanced targeting and novel ad products, different people watching the same show could experience dramatically different ad loads, with the ads appearing at different times and in different volumes. Executives refer to the placement and quantity of ads as both an art and a science—one that is rapidly evolving as streamers look to find the sweet spot between retention and revenue.
