CTV World Summit London 2026 was a busy, two-day conference packed with sessions put on by Adwanted. We recapped some of the biggest themes identified during the conference, including our own EVP Jack Davison’s presentation, “Studio-Broadcaster Content Licensing An Evolving Landscape” which you can access HERE.
Boosting Ad-Supported Revenues
Matt Bryan from Samsung Ads spoke about the CTV experience today with 87% of primary TVs in home being connected, stating that “you can argue consumers have never had it better” with streaming options and great consumer experiences. It does bring on the paradox of choice debate, with him emphasizing that discoverability is key. It’s about creating leaned-in versus leaned-out viewing experiences, which is why they have a focus on FAST.
During a session on “How broadcasters make money from social media and video sharing platforms” Channel Four’s Hannah Barlow gave us some interesting insight into how the broadcaster distributes content beyond the TV. She spoke on how episodes go onto YouTube typically a week after TV, offering a chance to monetize the second window. They control inventory and CPMs which is crucial. “It’s the incrementality piece that we’re after” she said. And interestingly enough, “89% of our watch time is driven by full length episodes” on YouTube. This works uniquely on YouTube as compared to other social forms like Tik Tok. They have now begun commissioning first for YouTube especially for younger audiences like their series Savage Sundays. Some challenges, though, include prominence and ad load which Channel Four don’t control. They’ve also begun adding digital originals that’s worked on YouTube to Spotify, so social media will be an area to watch out for and how broadcasters continue to play in this space.
Content Licensing in an Evolving Landscape
During a fireside chat with All3Media’s Gary Woolf, he said that “in FAST it’s quite important that an audience recognizes a brand”. They will be launching five more channels launching over the next few months and work with lots of partners across the TV ecosystem. He said that FAST costs money so we need to make money, “but equally we’re looking to drive audiences” and FAST allows us to increase brand awareness. This works especially well on a platform like Amazon Prime where they can cross promote their SVOD on FAST. They’re also launching their first FAST channel in Spain since they own all the dubs and the audience is already familiar with the content. It’s an area that they would like to keep expanding in.
3Vision’s own Jack Davison led a panel discussing studio broadcasters’ content licensing strategies. ZDF Studio’s Linette Zaulich said they were early adopters in FAST as a launch partner of Pluto in 2019. But it was not an immediate revenue stream so “we watched and learned” in order to become successful. FAST “isn’t the answer to everything but it’s a piece of it”. Zee Entertainment’s Parul Goel stated “where it comes to priorities I go to where there’s more money”, speaking on how he has no bias towards any distribution model and open to all including D2C, pay TV, FAST, and partnerships. On partnerships, Linette stated that “partnering isn’t new” - the mechanics have just changed. Goel echoed this and said Zee needs to be on every distribution form possible and if a partnership makes this happen then they’re open to it.
Bundling and Aggregators
Francois Godard offered an insightful session on bundling and aggregators, a hot topic these days. He said that bundle subscribers are more profitable than those on DTC. While ARPU per month is lowest but the monthly churn is much lower bringing the lifetime revenue per subscriber to be more. He also spoke about how Netflix continues to define the market, setting the price ceiling because it's a destination platform with high engagement and low churn. Godard mentioned that it’s easier to offer cancel anytime and “Netflix has defined expectations of consumers” because this. On the aggregation side, he spoke on how aggregators love ingestions, ingested streamers less so. He ended by saying that “more bundling is to come, and cancel anytime will continue define the market”.
Digital Personalisation
Gilberto Castañon, Director of Distribution Operation at Globo, outlined the importance of a customised user interface. He showcased his company’s new technology that allows for smart TVs to provide a tailored experience. We saw a clip of the 2026 Rio Carnival where the audio layers could be stripped back so the audience can hear only the percussion, the melody, or the presenter’s speech. Users are also able to vote for their favourite performance or export the content they are viewing to their mobile device, increasing user engagement and retention.
In the current competitive landscape one way to stand out is to provide digital personalisation for the user, and Globo is betting on this feature to harness mass broadcast reach.
The two days went by fast but the panels, sessions, and networking made for another successful CTV World Summit. You can access all of the presentations HERE.
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