Instagram is coming for your television

Today’s Social Media advertising rates are hanging with your big brother George, the richest man in town:

↘️ META: $11.50 | ↗️ TIKTOK: $3.20 CPM | ↘️ SNAPCHAT: $5.82 CPM

In this week’s edition: 

• 📺 Instagram is coming for your TV

• Threads wants you to find your people 🧵

• 📌 What the heck did Pinterest just buy?

But first…

📺  Streaming is getting more expensive. That means more ads.

Streaming’s ad-free tier is getting more expensive: The average price of ad-free streaming has increased from $9 to $16 per month since 2020 (+78%). Price is now the #1 reason people cancel or select streaming services. As a result of price increases, more viewers are now choosing free, ad-supported streaming, with 45% of U.S. households watching in early 2025, up from 42% last year.

The Inside Scoop🍦: Now trending in performance media

📷 Instagram is bringing Reels to TV screens with the launch of its new "Instagram for TV" app, currently piloting only with Amazon Fire TV devices and only in the U.S. Instagram expects to widen support for additional devices and launch in additional markets next year. While this marks a major expansion for the platform, note that ads are currently not being placed on the TV version of the app. Variety has a demo of Instagram for TV in action.

🧵 Threads is expanding its Communities feature, adding over 200 topic-based groups to help users find and join conversations around shared interests. The platform is also testing “Community Champion” badges and “Community flair” to highlight key voices and elements of a topic they are most interested in to spark more engagement. 

• “Community Champions” shows the main voices in any Community, making it easier to find the right people to follow. 

• “Community Flair” lets group members show off what specific elements of a topic they’re most interested in. Community champions set the flair options, and members can choose one that appears on all their posts in that space.

📺 YouTube has begun limited testing of image carousels within the Shorts feed. Creators can include up to 10 images in their posts. YouTube confirmed that all image posts created through the “Create” button will be eligible to show in the Shorts feed and that audio options are in the pipeline.

🎧 Spotify has now rolled out new Reporting Templates to simplify your analysis. Choose from three customizable, pre-filled templates that can automatically run across your active campaigns and can be scheduled for regular delivery. To get started, navigate to Reports > Templates in the left navigation bar. The templates are:

• Weekly Campaign Performance

• 30 Day Ad Set Performance by Day

• Lifetime Ad Performance

📌 Pinterest has announced a pending acquisition of the CTV platform, tvScientific. The deal will bring tvScientific’s advertising technology and its 15,000+ unique audience segments into the Pinterest ecosystem to enhance Pinterest’s ad capabilities.

• Pinterest’s acquisition is under regulatory review, and is expected to close in H1 2026. tvScientific will continue to operate under its own name once the deal is approved.

• According to Digiday, the deal gives Pinterest a performance-focused CTV engine that lets advertisers extend intent-rich Pinterest audiences onto the TV screen without losing attribution. Bigger picture: this could signal where CTV is headed next — SMB-friendly tools and clearer links between ad exposure and real business results.

🐨 How’s that working out for yeh, Australia? Last week, we reported that Australia had officially become the first country to implement an under-16 social media ban. Unfortunately for Australia, but perhaps fortunately for Australian tweens, the ban has not had much success, with many teens finding workarounds to circumvent the verification checks.

Thanks for reading, and happy holidays! The Thread is on vacation for the rest of 2025. 🎉 We’ll be back in 2026 to fill your inbox with more tips, tricks, and treats from the addressable universe.

In the meantime, stay up to date with the latest performance marketing intelligence by following us on Linkedin, Instagram, and X.

This week’s edition of the Thread was created by Jess Dashner, Anoushka Madan, Mariya Samardzhieva, Lara Spijkerman, and Carly Carioli.