By Charles Lee Mathews. Mobile-first audiences increasingly spend time in high-attention, on-demand environments. Advertisers are following them, moving budgets away from traditional linear TV to sponsored streaming media, where they get stronger engagement.
“Streaming has shifted from a ‘nice-to-have’ to a must-buy in most South African media plans, particularly for brands targeting urban, connected audiences,” says René Fowler, head of ad operations at media agency Juno and an IAB SA Research & Measurement Council member.
“The biggest driver is changing audience behaviour. Viewers are increasingly consuming video on demand across platforms like YouTube, Netflix, and DStv Stream (which Showmax was folded into at the end of April 2026), with mobile accelerating access beyond just affluent households. At the same time, ad-supported models have made streaming more scalable, while improved targeting and measurement offer greater efficiency and accountability than traditional TV,” she says.
Retail, financial and auto sectors dominate
Linear TV still plays a role in reaching mass audiences, Fowler says, but viewers are now spread across multiple platforms instead of gathering around scheduled TV. “Streaming is now essential for incremental reach and precision, but works best alongside traditional channels rather than replacing them entirely,” she notes.
How big is sponsored streaming media? “Unfortunately, there’s still very limited publicly available South African data specifically isolating sponsored streaming or CTV investment,” Fowler says. Fowler notes that, based on current market movement and supplier conversations, Juno is seeing increasing investment and experimentation in the space, particularly from FMCG, retail, financial services, telecoms, and automotive brands.
“While exact figures are difficult to quantify publicly, streaming and premium video are clearly moving beyond ‘test budgets’ and becoming a more established part of media planning for brands looking for stronger targeting, measurable engagement, and premium audience environments,” Fowler says.
The trend to brief for streaming media
Sponsored streaming media has moved past the ‘experimental’ phase and is now firmly brief-specific, largely off the back of a changing audience mindset,” says Alex Mac Neill, senior strategist at Connect. “We are no longer just buying ‘eyeballs’. We are buying into a specific, leaned-in, high-attention state.”
“If your audience is streaming and your message is designed for that level of immersion, then it’s a must-buy. If you’re just chasing a trend without cultural fit, you’re just background noise in a high-definition room,” Mac Neill states.
Connect currently has five clients who consistently spend significantly in the streaming space. “These clients have been spending anywhere from R1.2M to R10M on streaming each year for the past handful of years. Industries include QSR, retail, FMCG and Telco,” Mac Neil says.
Not saying bye-bye to broadcast
Like Fowler, Mac Neill maintains that this doesn’t mean that the days of broadcast are over locally. “We aren’t seeing a wholesale abandonment of broadcast, but rather a more surgical approach to budget distribution. Our goal is to move clients away from the ‘legacy comfort’ of linear TV and toward outcome-based allocation,” she explains.
“For many, streaming is the bridge that allows us to extend reach into the ‘cord-cutters’ without losing the mass-market scale that traditional broadcast still offers. It’s less about ‘adding on top’ and more about optimising the mix for a fragmented reality,” she says.
‘Cord cutters’ who cancel traditional TV subscriptions in favour of internet-based streaming services are partly to blame for DStv SA’s major restructuring. The media service has shed 16 channels after losing R7 billion over two years and failed negotiations for content, prompting a takeover by Canal+.
Local is lekker
Like most advertising, contextual intelligence is key to successful, integrated campaigns. “The smartest brands have realised that placing a generic ad into the middle of a hyper-local, culturally rich production feels like a jarring interruption rather than an integration,” says Mac Neill. But, on the positive side, she notes, brands are slowly starting to prioritise creative that “speaks the language, literally and figuratively” of the content that appears around it.
“We’re seeing more sponsors invest in localised content and partnerships, especially as the demand for culturally relevant storytelling grows,” she continues. “Local diversity in language and culture directly impacts engagement and effectiveness. However, many campaigns still rely on adapted global creative rather than truly local-first ideas.”
Fowler explains that cost, speed, or centralised production models are often the reason. “The reality is that localisation isn’t just translation. It requires building content from the ground up with local context, language, and insight, which is where the strongest performance gains are being seen,” says Fowler.
Stand out and be seen
And, when cash is tight, brands are betting big on brief, high-voltage moments, then layering in just enough touchpoints to stay visible. Because of a fickle audience that dips in and out of different streaming packages and experiences, there’s no singular favoured destination.
“You stop trying to build a ‘home’ for your brand on one platform and rather focus on building a narrative thread that follows them into the other spaces where they spend their time. If the audience is transient, your brand needs to be ubiquitous but nimble,” Mac Neill notes.
In terms of form, Fowler says the shift is toward more integrated formats, such as sponsorship and branded content. “Pre-roll remains dominant because it delivers guaranteed reach, high visibility, and measurable performance, which is why it still accounts for a large share of AVOD [advertising-based video on demand] revenue globally,” Fowler says.
“It’s efficient and scalable, which keeps it firmly on media plans. However, it’s also the most interruptive. That’s where sponsorships and branded content are gaining ground. Branded content is proving its value because it’s less intrusive and more engaging, often outperforming traditional ads in driving consideration and positive brand perception,” she states.
Focus on influence and points of difference
“Similarly, sponsorship-led formats (like content integrations or “brought to you by” moments) are benefiting from higher attention and recall in streaming environments. The winning approach isn’t choosing one, it’s using pre-roll for reach and layering in branded or sponsored formats to drive impact and differentiation,” says Fowler.
But how do you know if you’re winning? “The buying journey and complexity of channels make the exposure of a streaming ad to the final purchase impossible,” says Neil Pursey, founder and CEO of Measurebyte. “If brands are claiming to do so, they haven’t considered all that happens prior to seeing the ad. For instance, the customer could already be using the product or have seen an OOH (out-of-home) ad. Brands can only find correlation, but it’s inaccurate to say they can identify a 1:1 causal relationship between exposure to a streaming ad and a final sale,” says Pursey.
“Larger brands with big budgets can deploy data clean rooms, but for most mid-market brands (most of the market), this is not feasible. The advertisers who suffer here are mid-market brands because of the lack of transparency from major streamers, unless there is some type of independent verification layer governing the ecosystem,” Pursey says.
Sponsored streaming is no longer a bet on the future. The media has matured, and brands clinging to the linear playbook risk losing attention. But the winners won’t be the ones spending the most. The advantage will go to brands that move quickly, invest in deep localisation, stay visible across platforms, and produce creative that stands out.
Charles Lee Mathews is a senior editor to MarkLives MEDIA and a senior writer to MarkLives.com, as well as co-founder of The Writers, a writing consultancy.
