Blue Tiger Engage May 2025
BT Engage: May Newsletter
Welcome to Blue Tigers monthly newsletter Engage, bringing you all the latest news, trends and updates from across the media landscape. In this month’s edition we look at all the major news stories that have been capturing the headlines.
UK Advertising records £42.6bn spend in 2024
The latest Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure Report, shows that the UK’s ad market recorded a 10.4% increase in investment to a total of £42.6bn in 2024. The latest dataset shows online formats, when combined, grew 13.2% last year with £4 in every £5 of ad budgets now spent online.
New AA/WARC forecasts show advertising is expected to rise by 6.3% to reach £45.2bn in 2025. Further growth is forecast for 2026, with an anticipated rise of 5.6% lifting the UK ad market’s value to £47.8bn next year. Forecasts have seen a slight downgrade from January’s predictions, factoring in a possible destabilising effect from the US trade tariffs on the wider global economy and a tougher economic backdrop leading to uncertainty in the advertising market.
Stephen Woodford, CEO, Advertising Association, said: “While the UK advertising industry growth is well ahead of UK growth, it’s worth noting business confidence may weaken due to geopolitical headwinds and regulatory uncertainty, which could impact on the way businesses commit to spend on advertising. However, it’s important to remember once again that advertising supports competition and promotes innovation, and helps to create jobs across the UK, so a healthy advertising sector is integral to a healthy economy. The UK advertising market is constantly dynamic, with these latest figures recording the rise of retail media and the growth of advertising opportunities from video-on-demand, reducing cost of access to TV content for people.”
‘TV to till’: Amazon to bring new shoppable formats to UK in H2
Amazon Prime Video will be bringing a number of new ad formats to the UK market in H2.
David Amodio, Amazon’s head of video sales specialists, Northern Europe, revealed at Connected TV World Summit in London that advertisers will soon be able to buy against pause ads, a “sophisticated” shoppable carousel format and another interactive format that allows users to shop for advertised items without being taken out of the Prime Video player.
“What we’re bringing to the table is a layer of shoppability that hasn’t really existed at this scale before,” he said, noting the formats are already being tested in the US.
He also highlighted this month’s launch of Amazon’s streaming TV+ offering, which brings together all of Amazon’s connected TV products in one place to make it easier for advertisers to transact across the whole of Amazon’s video inventory.
Record Breaking Quarter for ITVX
ITVX is going from strength to strength. It has achieved a record breaking one billion streams in a single quarter, driven by strong performances across soaps, drama, entertainment, sport and reality.
Coronation Street and Emmerdale saw a 35 percent boost with 124 million streams, while entertainment hits like Britain’s Got Talent and The Masked Singer contributed to 133 million streams.
Drama led with over 300 million streams, powered by the “New Drama Sundays” strategy and hits like Unforgotten, Playing Nice and Protection.
Love Island All Stars was the top single title with over 100 million streams, also ranking highest among 16 to 34 audiences, alongside Getting Filthy Rich and G’Wed. Major sporting events, including the Six Nations and FA Cup, also drew millions of viewers.
Channel 4 to launch video programming on Spotify
Launching this week, content will be supplied from the broadcaster’s digital-first brand, Channel 4.0. Episodes of shows including Minor Issues, Hear Me Out and Secret Sauce will be distributed on Spotify’s mobile and desktop apps.
This is a first for UK public-service broadcasters and is part of Channel 4’s strategy to become a “digital-first public-service streamer” by 2030.
The broadcaster has historically been among the first to innovate its distribution strategy for the social media and streaming era. It launched TV programming on Snapchat in 2018 and on TikTok in 2021.
In 2022, it became the first UK broadcaster to strike a distribution deal for long-form content on YouTube (subsequently followed by ITV in December 2024).
“Gen Z are watching videos across lots of digital platforms as well as on Channel 4 heartland ones and Spotify is very much one of the new, so that’s where we’re going,” outgoing CEO Alex Mahon said. “This new first-of-its-kind approach puts Channel 4 content in another place where people already are.
Mahon described the effort as a natural extension of Channel 4’s Fast Forward strategy. Launched in 2024, Fast Forward is an official effort by the broadcaster to digitise its content offering and deliver new revenues in the streaming era.
“We’ve always led the pack on digital — and we’re doing it again,” she added.
Channel 4.0 aims to deliver programming for the 13-24 age group, often by collaborating with social media personalities and other creators to devise youth-centred content for different platforms. According to the broadcaster, views of Channel 4.0 content across all platforms doubled (+99%) last year.
For further information, please don’t hesitate to contact us at Blue Tiger Marketing, we’re here to help you navigate the changing landscape effectively, leveraging new opportunities while mitigating potential risks.
Sources:
Advertising Association
New Digital Age
ITV
BBC
The Media Leader
