• by Wayne Friedman , July 19, 2023

A glut in streaming platforms' advertising may be on the rise. Now, nearly 35% of streaming "pods" can last more than three minutes -- the same range as traditional TV advertising breaks, according to a Comcast Advertising survey.

At the top end, nearly 25% of commercial pods can be four minutes or longer.

Comcast Advertising says that overall, nearly 70% of the length of streaming advertising pods are less than three minutes.

Research shows that live streaming of content can have longer commercial pods than those of on-demand/library content -- partly due to streaming owners looking to match airings to that of existing linear TV distributors.

Live content -- especially sports -- continues to grow on many premium streamers.

Respondents, currently, aren’t concerned about about overall commercial loads of streamers, as 72% feel TV ads should be “in line with the content length.” But they are annoyed about multiple airings of the same piece of advertising content, with 67% citing this as a problem.

Frequency issues -- airings of the same creative advertising multiple times  -- on streaming platforms continue to be a major concern for brands. In the first quarter 2023, research says 54% of ad campaigns on streamers have frequency caps -- which also means, according to Comcast, that nearly half don't.

Comcast says the majority of viewing now takes place outside of primetime -- 72% -- with an average of 30 networks being viewed per household. 

Growth of FAST networks (Free Advertising Supported Streaming Television) has matured, according to the survey, as an alternative to linear TV.

A majority of respondents to the survey agree that FAST networks are a “premium video experience.”