It’s been a busy week at Jacobs and jacapps HQ as we gear up for some big September projects (more on that soon). While we’re in prep mode, here are a few headlines worth your attention:
Streaming Video Continues Its Creeping Domination
Nielsen’s monthly TV report, The Gauge, shows that in July streaming continued its steady takeover of viewing. Streaming now accounts for 47% of total TV viewing, compared with 22% for cable and 18% for broadcast.
Notably, streaming’s growth has come mainly at the expense of cable, which has shed 35% of its viewership in four years, while broadcast TV is down a “mere” 15%. For certain, we’ll see the traditional media viewership pick up this fall with football’s return to their traditional haunts, but not at the rate it was at forty-eight months ago.
Nielsen Gauge – July 2025 vs July 2022
The other massive shift is the massive increase in YouTube and AVOD (ad-supported video-on-demand) viewership. As much as business news journalists and entertainment trades continually talk about the traditional media offshoots like Paramount+, Peacock, and HBONow-HBOGo-HBOMax-Max-HBOMax, the free ad-supported platforms Roku and Tubi each have more viewership. And YouTube alone gets almost 9x the viewing of those traditional-media offshoots, even without pricey NBA and UFC rights.
Big media buyers are tuned into this, but what about SMB advertisers—the bread and butter for many broadcasters’ digital sales? And are all our sellers aware of how fast things are changing? Sitting in on recent pitches, I’ve seen a surprising mix of knowledge on both sides of the table. A good reminder: never assume everyone in the room knows the score, especially when it’s changing so fast.
Another Year, Another Meta Scandal
The tone-deaf company known for “Move Fast and Break Things” has stumbled again: a UK whistleblower filed a lawsuit alleging Facebook bypassed Apple’s privacy requirements, artificially boosted ROAS (return on ad spend) stats, and subsidized bids to make its e-commerce ad products look more effective than they actually were. Meta’s indiscretions, according to the complaint, followed Apple clamping down on privacy on iOS devices in 2021, which Meta very publicly complained would cost it $10 billion.
Originally published by Jacobs Media
