💪 Pay TV’s FAST Flex
In Europe - Weekend Wrap Up Edition - Week 21/2025
Here’s what you need to know before Monday rolls around. Happy weekend SME insiders!
Why trust Streaming Made Easy Premium to know Europe like the back of your hand?
❌ No copy and paste press releases to inform you or out of touch research.
✅ Only insights and analysis based on 20 years of operational and strategy experience in the region.
Still on the edge?
⏳ Cannes Countdown On
A few hours left before the winners are in. Until then, read Stephen Follows’ 8 takeaways from the market. Follows sees this year’s festival as an inflection point for the industry.
For marketing & streaming stances on Cannes, head over here:
🌤️ German Advertising Forecasts
The one graph you need to understand the German video advertising market and what keeps every European broadcaster up at night. The good news is that growth is in the cards this year.
🎯 A Goal & A Miss
Disney+ nets exclusive UEFA Women’s Champions League Rights and I didn’t see it coming. Shame on me! Proof in my 15 Media Trends for 2025 👇
From October 2025, Disney+ will be the exclusive home for all 75 live matches of the UEFA Women’s Champions League across Europe. The multi-season deal covers the new 18-team League phase and runs through the 2026 Final in Oslo, with ESPN producing multilingual coverage.
It’s a major win for Disney+ and they NEEDED sports rights in the region.
👉 Check out their awesome announcement trailer.
🏔️ Pushing The Limits? Not Quite
Paramount Pictures is promoting the upcoming Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning with a 24 x 7 live stream with highlights and cult moments from all 7 films, running back-to-back for a whole week.
Is it the right way to go though? I would have done a marathon on YouTube somehow like they are doing right now on Pluto TV. Another sign that big media struggles to fully embrace YouTube and focus on funnelling viewers to their own and operated only.
⚗️Not All Ads Are Equal
So, which actually work and why? Deterministic > Probabilistic. Zero party data collected directly from subscribers is quickly becoming the gold standard. Unlike probabilistic signals like IP addresses or stale email lists, this data is accurate, opt-in, and high-value. As a result, addressable advertising is shifting from niche tactic to foundational strategy, now deployed across both linear and streaming environments with precision.
Meet Dan Callahan, Group VP & Head of National Sales at Spectrum Reach, our guest on The Media Odyssey Podcast for this dive deep into the evolving world of addressable advertising.
The Addressable Table & underlying research is here.
LISTEN and/or WATCH: APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE
💪 Pay TV’s FAST Flex
Virgin Media O2 already delivers its 32 FAST channels to 3.5 million UK households, now it’s teamed up with RTL AdAlliance to power ad sales across that lineup. By integrating these channels into RTL’s pan-European Total Video inventory, Virgin Media O2 gains:
International advertiser demand: RTL’s relationships in 20+ markets drive fresh ad budgets into Virgin’s FAST inventory.
Unified sales platform: Through RTL AdManager, Virgin gains streamlined programmatic and direct-sale workflows, reducing operational overhead.
Premium packaging: Bundling FAST with RTL’s Total Video portfolio lets Virgin offer higher CPMs and premium sponsorships.
Data-driven yield optimisation: RTL’s targeting and yield-management tools boost fill rates and viewability, maximising ad revenue per minute.
This collaboration not only supercharges Virgin Media O2’s FAST ad revenues (and reinforces RTL’s UK inventory) but also underscores Pay TV’s ambition to challenge CTV platforms in Free Streaming, a trend I’ve been vocal about for the past two years. Is this year it?
That’s it for today but before you go, tell me 🗳️
Enjoy your day and see you on Tuesday for a Deep Dive edition of Streaming Made Easy Premium.
Next up: we’re going to San Sebastián for a post mortem of the GEMA Europe Summit 2025.
