• by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, 2 hours ago

As more marketers bring digital approaches to TV advertising, they increasingly recognize that TV is massively underused for its capacity to drive predictable, profitable and highly measurable outcomes like website visits, app downloads, phone calls and sales, irrespective of whether the ads were delivered in streaming or linear channels.

The future of TV as an outcome-driving channel was the topic of an evening event that kicked off upfronts week. We heard perspectives from some of the industry’s smartest leaders: Peter Naylor of Nielsen, Robert Tas of McKinsey & Company and Steve Hartmann of Experian.

Here’s some of what they had to say:

Mid-funnel is back. The old approach to TV—only upper-funnel or only bottom-funnel—is dead. Journey orchestration powered by AI is finally letting marketers meet customers where they are, not where the media plan says they should be.

Measurement is the new headline. At Fox's upfront, the CTO was the second person on stage. That says everything. Last-click attribution is dying. Incrementality is the new standard. As Tas put it: “If you're not leaning in, you're getting fired.”

Live sports: essential, but unsustainable. Everyone agreed: Book it in advance or lose it. But rising costs are becoming prohibitive, and companies should think about alternatives. The cost of a regular-season NFL spot today is what a divisional playoff spot cost two years ago. Hartmann said it plainly: "The NFL has been an anchor for us, but it's getting cost-prohibitive." That's a massive shift, and brands will have to get smarter about where they find scale.

Linear TV has a stigma problem, not a performance problem. Tas didn't mince words: "Streaming is overpriced, to be honest." He backed it up: Brands that shifted aggressively away from linear have come back because, at the end of the day, the math is the math.

And maybe the most quotable line of the evening, from Naylor: "There's the tip of the spear who totally get it. They're months ahead of people who think they're on it. And those people are months ahead of the fat middle, who are just praying things don't change that fast."

What’s your take on the future of TV as an outcome-driving channel?