Welcome to Partner Perspectives, PubMatic’s series showcasing the industry leaders shaping the future of programmatic advertising. In each edition, we highlight innovative partners and customers delivering exceptional results across the industry.
In this edition, we’re featuring Future Today, a pioneer in ad-supported streaming with a long track record of CTV innovation. From launching one of the earliest apps on Roku to building a portfolio of family, lifestyle, and movie streaming apps and FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) channels, Future Today has been a steadfast partner to PubMatic, consistently staying ahead of the curve in shaping how audiences and advertisers engage with free, premium content.
We spoke with Vikrant Mathur, Co-Founder; Katya Shkolnik, VP of Business Development; and Tim Ware, VP of Future Today Marketplace, to learn how they are scaling audiences, innovating in ad experiences, and preparing for the next phase of CTV growth.
Future Today has long been a leading CTV publisher, helping to shape the growth of streaming. How has your perspective on this space evolved, and what do you think is driving its continued momentum?
The perspective and entrepreneurial spirit is as great as it’s ever been. Future Today published the fourth app on Roku in 2013 (iFood.TV) and added HappyKids, FawesomeTV, and Filmrise apps along the way. We are quickly adding FAST channels through our owned and operated app and leading OEMs. As CTV viewership surpasses consumption of legacy linear TV, its business is maturing, and we are looking to work more closely with ‘best-in-class’ CTV platforms such as PubMatic.
Vikrant Mathur, Co-Founder
As both a technology platform and a content distributor, how do you approach scaling audience reach and monetization across your network of channels?
Great, popular, desirable, free programming is more discoverable and appealing. This, combined with organic growth plus paid and earned marketing support, drives our substantial viewership growth.
Katya Shkolnik, VP of Business Development
How are viewer behaviors shifting across the genres you support, like kids, lifestyle, and movies? What’s resonating most with audiences today?
Future Today’s audience is maturing, aging, and as a result, PG-rated family movie nights continue to account for a bigger percentage of our Family App ‘HappyKids’ view time. Lifestyle programming, which was initially born out of iFood.TV, is growing in popularity on the FawesomeTV (our flagship CTV AVOD/FAST service). Furthermore, our core audience is aging into FawesomeTV to capture the best licensed movie studio content — TV shows and theatrical movies that include original productions. As consumers are pinched by pay services (SVOD/AVOD), the “free” value exchange for ad breaks in exchange for great content is being sought out. Engagement is growing, viewership is skyrocketing, and FawesomeTV and Filmrise account for the majority of viewership as our service and audiences grow up.
Tim Ware, VP of Future Today Marketplace
AVOD has become an increasingly important part of media plans. What innovations or partnerships are you most excited about when it comes to ad experiences and brand engagement?
AVOD (advertising video on demand), unto itself, represents the highest value of CTV supply bar none. AVOD programming delivers more viewership and attentional metrics (according to TVision’s State of CTV report) based on it being “on-demand,” versus lean-back and channel surf, which garners less attention. Future Today is very excited to lean into contextual signals, predictive audiences that allow buyers to capture our first-party viewership data and generate deterministic predictive audiences that can drive strong campaign performance for a variety of categories including CPG, QSR, Automotive, Financial Services, and Entertainment brands. Data companies like IRIS.TV and Proximic by Comscore are among the leading companies we work with. Furthermore, Future Today is leaning into overlays (lower third and L-Band), as well as interactive ads, to drive better awareness of a brand’s message and promote ‘lower funnel’ activity to viewers.
Tim Ware, VP of Future Today Marketplace
Looking ahead, how is Future Today positioning itself to lead in the next phase of streaming growth?
Future Today Marketplace has been a big step in terms of differentiating our CTV supply from “Future Today 1.0” inventory. Not only is viewership skyrocketing, but our viewers are growing up, have more purchasing power, and we are actively working within the industry to more optimally deliver campaign KPIs, including ROAS, purchase lift, brand lift, emotional lift, and footfall attribution. Future Today Marketplace is intended to incorporate all of these data targeting and measurement initiatives to maximize the value, spend, and results of PubMatic’s buyers.
Tim Ware, VP of Future Today Marketplace
Innovative Collaboration
Future Today’s story reflects the rapid maturation of CTV and the powerful opportunities that come with pairing premium, free content experiences with advanced ad innovation. By leveraging data-driven targeting, interactive formats, and new marketplace models, they are partnering with PubMatic to set the standard for the future of streaming.
We’re proud to be a trusted partner to Future Today, working together to expand reach, deliver measurable outcomes, and bring scalable value to advertisers across the ecosystem.
Stay tuned for more Partner Perspectives as we highlight the buyers, publishers, and platforms who are driving growth and innovation with PubMatic.
