StreamTV Show ‘25: Three signals shaping the future of streaming.

From June 11–13, we were back in Denver as a sponsor at StreamTV Show, joining 1,600+ media leaders for three days of honest conversations, future-forward panels, and big thinking around what’s next.

At REDspace, we build platforms, apps, and services for the Media & Entertainment industry. So we went in listening. And we left with a good view of where things are headed.

Here are the three signals that stood out to us:

Today’s streaming reality? Audiences have access to everything, but finding the right thing still feels broken. With content fragmentation, discovery is the new battleground.

This is backed by hard data: a recent survey found that users spend 110 hours a year scrolling and searching (almost five full days!) just to decide what to watch. Nearly half of respondents say bloated libraries are their top cause of frustration, and 52% rate the user interface as vital in their subscription decision.

This is something we’ve seen come up often in the platforms we’ve built. It’s not just about having control over how content is presented, it’s about creating discovery experiences that feel intuitive, engaging, and even fun. The challenge for media companies isn’t just surfacing the right content, but finding creative ways to make that journey enjoyable for the audience.

FAST was everywhere again this year, but the narrative is shifting. Viewership is still rising, but revenue? Not so much.

FAST fatigue is real.

Reports show FAST fill rates hover between 20–40% for many partners, while programmatic CPMs continue to struggle. Wurl’s data confirms that although fill rates climbed to 64% in 2024, 6.8% of ad time remains unfilled, up from zero-fill in earlier periods. It’s left execs asking: “Should we just build our own platform?”

Our answer: maybe.

If owning the customer experience, controlling your monetization, and having access to first-party data matters to your business, then building direct might be the right move. And based on our experience in building these platforms for Tier 1 streaming services, it doesn’t have to mean starting from scratch.

Owning audience engagement doesn’t stop at the living room, it’s coming to cars, too. In a standout OTT growth roundtable at StreamTV Show, panelists discussed the growing role of autonomous vehicles as future content delivery and advertising platforms. Speakers included Raphael Daste (Stripe), Amy Geary (NBCUniversal), Bill Michels (Gracenote), Scott Olechowski (Plex), and David Purdy (Stingray). The panel highlighted a wildly bold prediction: within five years, 50% of driving would be autonomous. This shift would open new frontiers for media companies, not just for in-car entertainment, but also for personalized ad delivery.

Rather than focusing solely on streaming content, the conversation centered on how brands could use self-driving environments as high-value ad spaces. The ultimate blending of location, context, and behavior data to deliver more relevant and impactful advertising experiences for your audience.

You can’t talk about media in 2025 without talking about AI. Personalization engines, AI hosts, automated editing, AI generated video, it’s all here. But the key sentiment we heard? Audiences crave authenticity. Viewers want the promise of AI’s efficiency, but not at the expense of creative control or brand integrity.

Yes, AI is a powerful tool. But creative control and brand integrity matter more than ever. Gen Z, probably the hardest audience to target right now, is setting the standard for what realness in content looks like. Win them over, and the rest of the world will follow.

We hear again and again that many AI vendors are pitching their tools as “replacements” for human teams. In our opinion, the most compelling ROI for media companies stems from leveraging AI to drive efficiencies in traditionally manual processes.

Some top AI product companies seem to agree with us. Tools like Perplexity, Jasper, and Notion aren’t trying to remove humans from the process, they’re helping people move faster, think more clearly, and stay focused on high-impact work. When AI is framed as an accelerator rather than a substitute, it seems like people trust it more.

And as AI-generated media becomes more widespread, content provenance is moving to the forefront. Who made this? Was it altered? Who owns the rights? Can we trust it? These are real questions audiences and platforms are asking. Organizations like BBC are leading the charge with initiatives around content labeling and transparency, helping set standards that preserve trust in a shifting media landscape.

What ties all of this together?

– Choice needs better discovery.

– Monetization needs to be scalable and attributable.

– AI needs human collaboration, creative oversight, and clarity.

We think it’s the builders, not just the broadcasters, who are shaping the next wave of streaming. The future of streaming won’t be defined by who has the most content, but by who can shape the smartest, most engaging experience around it. Because for all the talk about content overload, what audiences might really be craving is simple human connection.