On the second day of MIPCOM 2026, Guy Bisson, Executive Director at Ampere Analysis, delivered a sobering reality check to producers and distributors in his presentation, «The New Economics of Content: Why Advertising Matter».» As the global streaming industry matures, the historical pursuit of pure subscriber growth has been eclipsed by the urgent need for advertising revenue, fundamentally rewriting the rules of what platforms are commissioning, how they schedule releases, and how they price their services to manipulate consumer behavior.
Bisson opened the session by highlighting how the core drivers of platform growth have evolved dramatically over the last half-decade. ‘A decent TV show would do it five years ago, four years ago. Now pretty much the only thing that moves the needle is live events and sports and really big shows’, he explained, citing the massive anticipation for properties like season five of Stranger Things and season three of Squid Game. However, as platforms increasingly rely on advertising to drive business revenue growth, they face a unique behavioral hurdle.
According to Ampere Analysis data, consumers on ad-supported tiers are significantly harder to retain and monetize than premium, ad-free subscribers. ‘They don’t watch as much as premium viewers’, Bisson noted. ‘They actually watch far fewer days, typically in a month, than an ad-free viewer. And they binge less’.
To combat this lower engagement and satisfy advertisers’ need for broad reach, global streamers are radically shifting their acquisition strategies toward massive catalogs and a heavy reliance on unscripted television. Bisson revealed that unscripted content now accounts for one in every two new commissions from major streamers, soaring from a historical 10% to 20% share up to 50% on some platforms. The economic rationale behind this programming shift is entirely ad-driven: unscripted formats are highly repeatable, suit staggered weekly drops that keep audiences coming back, and are structurally built for commercial breaks. ‘If you’re a programmer, you can squeeze a few more ads in an hour around a short unscripted show than you can around a premium drama’, the executive stated, adding that there are currently about 25% more ads in unscripted content on streamers than in scripted programming.
Meanwhile, the platforms are actively engineering their subscriber bases to favor these lucrative ad tiers through deliberate pricing strategies. Bisson pointed out that streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney are aggressively widening the price gap between their offerings to push consumers toward commercials. In many wealthy Western markets, a premium ad-free subscription on Netflix now costs more than double its ad-supported counterpart. As these ad tiers swell with new users, the viewer experience is also shifting. While streaming ad loads remain lower than traditional US network television, they are escalating. «Don’t expect that to last forever. The ad loads are increasing rapidly on streaming,» warned Bisson, noting that Netflix has increased its ad load by up to 100% since January, albeit from a very low starting point.
To survive and secure funding in this new ad-driven ecosystem, Bisson advised producers to completely rethink their pitches. Moving forward, creators must evaluate their projects through an advertising lens, asking themselves if their content creates regular engagement, suits staggered drops, and offers obvious brand alignments. «We’ve moved beyond simply dropping a decent TV show,» he concluded, signaling that the future of streaming economics relies entirely on building sustainable, ad-friendly ecosystems that prioritize frequency and volume over traditional binge-watching.
