Streaming Ad Market Worth $120m to Nets in '07

The Financial Times is reporting that the four major U.S. networks will reap $120 million in 2007 from ads connected with free streaming of their content. The number is expected to sharply increase next year. The FT's source is Starcom, described as a leading media buying agency.

The WGA wants 1.2% of such ad revenue, which suggests $1.44 million would have gone to the WGA for 2007. However, the Guild is willing to give the nets a residual-free promotional window of several days (i.e., the first several days that a particular program is available would not trigger residuals). Thus, the WGA's take would be less than the math suggests.

The cost to the nets and/or studios would be 9.5 times as much, because the residual formulas in agreements for the directors, actors and below-the-line craft workers would contain similar residuals formulas.