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POV: Possible

If the first of my POV: Possible mini-series — recorded at POSSIBLE 2026 Conference in Miami — left you rethinking your ad tech stack, this episode with Jason Wiese, EVP of Insights and Measurement at the VAB will make you rethink your approach to media planning.

Jason has been at the Video Advertising Bureau for 13 years, and produces 50 to 60 research and insight pieces a year, and does not, as he put it, “deal in non-hard numbers.” Consider yourself warned. And be prepared to be informed.

Fresh off moderating a panel called “Streaming Won. Now What?” I put him in the guest seat to explain how ad-supported streaming won, specifically. Turns out the ad-free era is pretty much over. Today, 95% of #CTV viewers see ads on their home screen before they even choose what to watch, and more than half of new streaming subscriptions are to ad-supported tiers. FAST (free ad-supported television, e.g. Pluto, Tubi, Roku) is growing.

Then I asked him to explain what he’s called a “crisis of reality.” It comes from a VAB report called The Illusions of the Internet, which IDs 20 “unfortunate realities” in the digital ecosystem across four categories: audiences, advertising inventory, products and services, and content.

Ready? Fifty-one percent of internet traffic is non-human. Of that? Thirty-seven percent is malicious bots.

Global ad fraud hit $111 billion last year — about 22% of total digital ad spend — and is projected to reach $172 billion by 2028. And North America, representing just 7.8% of the world’s population, accounts for 42% of that fraud. As Jason said, “The criminals go where the money is.”

“A bad ad environment can devalue a brand. It’s not even a flat-line thing. It devalues a brand.”
— Jason Wiese

The VAB's definition of Premium VideoThe good news (yup, there’s good news!) is that premium video is doing good by brands, being safe and transparent. Jason explains the VAB’s five-pillar definition of premium video, why not all impressions are created equal (content, context, viewer experience, and ad environment are what actually count), and why the industry’s shift toward audience-based buying is a genuine step forward.

(NOTE: We agreed that good ad environments hold up in the real world like bars and gyms, as discussed in the recent Insider Interviews episode with Atmosphere, where eye-tracking data tells its own story.)

Jason’s also pretty clear-eyed about AI. The concern isn’t AI itself (“It’s not a four-letter word”) but media planners should understand there’s the inherent bias toward digital platforms baked into the LLMs that marketers are using to make media allocation decisions.

His mind for numbers is astounding. But because transparency is kind of his whole thing, I made sure to ask Jason about his other life…as a Miami Hurricanes superfan convinced this is their year, and an aspiring Quentin Tarantino. He didn’t deny either.

Key Moments

  • 0:01:15 — Streaming Won. Now What? Why ad-supported streaming is the new default
  • 0:03:47 — Who is the VAB and what’s their research reality check
  • 0:06:16 — AI in media planning: a useful tool with a built-in blind spot
  • 0:09:32 — “Crisis of Reality”: The VAB’s Illusions of the Internet report
  • 0:11:01 — The bots have it: numbers every digital media buyer should understand
  • 0:14:12 — $45 billion in “undefined” Google ad spend all about transparency
  • 0:17:09 — What “premium video” actually means: A five-pillar definition
  • 0:18:39 — Good, better, best: Why ad environments can make or break a brand
  • 0:21:29 — A nod to good Atmosphere
  • 0:22:42 — From AI slop to “fully lit” and transparent Premium
  • 0:24:58 — The Human Side: Miami fan and a future Tarantino

Connect with:
The VAB

Jason Wiese

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