Welcome to the latest edition of State of the Screens.  

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes [608 words]

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Onward,

Michael Beach

Thank You!!!

Every year ends the same way.

You look back at what you wrote.
You look ahead at what you thought would happen.
And you measure the distance between confidence and reality.

Predictions matter less than progress.
The real test is whether your thinking improved.

This year, mine did.
Not because I wrote more, but because I cut more.
More weak ideas.
More comforting assumptions.
More things that sounded right but didn’t hold up.

This is a checkpoint.

Let’s break it down into 3 big questions:
1) What were the top posts?
2) How did the predictions do?
3) What happens next?

Past predictions: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019

What were the top posts?

If I had to simplify what State of the Screens is:
1) I spend 10-15 hours analyzing what matters and what doesn’t.
2) Then I boil it down into 4 minutes of clarity.
3) For every 1 minute you read, I’ve spent 200 making it worth your time.

2025 by the numbers:
1) 52 editions
2) 32,768 words
3) Estimated reading time: 130 minutes
4) Flesch Reading Ease Score: 77.5 (7th-grade level)
5) 55 new blog posts (1,318 total) at StateOfTheScreens.com
6) Our community has expanded to 20+ different countries!

Top posts:
1) Red Pill or Blue Pill?
2) Welcome to the Machine. The Rise of Algo Media Buying.
3) Every Person in Your House Has 3 TV Screens
4) Follow the Money
5) Sora and the Next Evolution of Algo TV

How did the predictions do?

2025 prediction #1: Streaming TV would pass linear TV in reach.

Verdict: Win. Streaming now leads in reach and time spent. Ad spend is next.

2025 prediction #2: New news formats would go mainstream.

Verdict: Mixed. Podcasts and social video grew, but nothing dominates. There is no single mainstream anymore.

2025 prediction #3: More creators would move from YouTube to streamers.

Verdict: Trending true. Netflix’s podcast push changed the math. More creators will follow.

What happens next?

2026 prediction #1: Audience targeting matters more

Why: Recently, I read two outstanding pieces from Marketing Economics and Mobile Dev Memo. Both pieces made me think about the future of audience targeting and what advertisers want.

How advertisers rank targeting options:
1) Audience targeting - Advertisers choose exactly who to reach and can compare results across platforms.

2) Closed-loop systems - Big platforms push black-box tools (e.g., automated buying). They can work, but they shift control to the platform and make cross-platform measurement harder.

3) Contextual - Mostly used by platforms that can’t offer the first two. Aside from a few premium cases (like major sports), it generally underperforms audience-based platforms on revenue per hour.

2026 prediction #2: Brand building gets more scientific

Why: The current race is to bring search- and social-style performance to streaming.

That’s a good thing. It opens a much larger market and brings new advertisers to TV.

Traditional TV has always been great at awareness and brand building. What’s changing is the science behind it.

At Cross Screen Media, we’ve seen advertisers quickly adopt any feature that makes brand advertising more measurable.

The key point is that awareness and conversion will begin to merge, and the funnel will collapse.

2026 prediction #3: Algo TV speeds up as social apps launch on streaming

Why: Instagram recently tested an app on Fire TV, and more moves like this are coming.

Early versions will likely be ad-free, but social apps will eventually bring their ad models to streaming.

One way to speed this up: social platforms share ad revenue with TV operating systems in exchange for home-screen placement.