70% direct and 30% programmatic, correct? How has that changed over a three to five-year period?

Initially, there was almost no programmatic. However, we managed to reach 30% in about four years. The dynamics around this involve several factors. One is how networks are considering monetizing their inventory. While this is changing, they are currently transitioning in terms of how they think about ad sales, yield optimization, and monetizing their inventory from a primarily direct sold model to embracing programmatic, marketplaces, and similar concepts. Recent news indicates that they are planning to start putting inventory in programmatic auctions. Netflix announced the same thing in their earnings call. This is all happening now.

Why didn't Netflix or Disney+ start with programmatic right away?

I believe there are two reasons. First, as they launch these new services, they don't have much scale. Programmatic requires scale because you need impressions to buy and not buy, based on targeting. Without significant scale, this is challenging. At the outset, it was difficult for Netflix and Disney+ to provide this with the number of subscribers they had in the US.

How much scale are we talking about? What is the differential between Netflix or Disney today versus Pluto TV, Roku, or Hulu? When does it become interesting for programmatic buyers?

Let's consider Tubi as an example. According to Fox's earnings report a week or two ago, Tubi currently has 70 million users in the US. On the other hand, Disney reported having a few million ad-supported subscribers, either two or five million, I can't recall the exact number. However, Disney's CEO, Iger, did mention that 50% of their new sign-ups are opting for the ad-supported tier. This suggests that this tier could scale nicely over the next six to 12 months.