After years spent amassing streaming subscribers at a premium, media companies now need to make some profits. And increasingly, they rely on advertising as an answer.

Look no further than the latest annual Upfronts, events loved by media companies Fox Corp., Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney and Comcast’s NBCUniversalsubmitted their bids to advertisers.

With the absence of stars and talent due to the ongoing Hollywood writers strikeNBCUniversal kicked off its event with an animated video of Ted, the ugly teddy bear created by Seth MacFarlane, who landed the streak on the company’s Peacock streaming service, singing and dancing to the tune, which included the refrain “We need ads”.

“We were all dreamers when we thought streamers were anything but fads,” sang the animated teddy bear to the audience. “Now we’re all begging for ads.”

The pressure on advertising comes not only with slowing subscriber growth and customer churn — commonly known as churn in the media business — but also as the ad market softened and slowly recovered.

During Disney’s earnings call earlier this month, CEO Bob Iger gave a new emphasis on ad-supported streaming. And Paramount Global and NBCUniversal touted having cheaper ad levels to begin with. Warner Bros. Discovery has also added such options for consumers.

“Despite the short-term macro projections of today’s overall market, the advertising potential of this combined platform is incredibly exciting,” Iger said after the announcement Hulu content would join Disney+a move that would be positive for advertisers.

Even NetflixEntered the game, which had been against advertising for years. The 800-pound gorilla in the streaming room held a virtual presentation for advertisers for the first time last week, revealing information about its ad-supported layer that provided encouragement to his stock.

It’s still early in the game, and it’s unclear whether advertising will fill the gaps in streaming subscriber growth.

When Netflix said it was losing subscribers early last year, it sent the streaming world into a tailspin. dear on stock prices and pushing executives to find other ways to bring in revenue. By the end of the year, Netflix launched a cheaper, ad-supported tier. Competing Disney+ as well.

Media companies are returning to the original business models that have long supported their businesses – generating revenue from content in multiple ways rather than relying on one route, subscriptions.

Netflix, while noting it’s still “in the early days,” said this week it has 5 million monthly active users for its cheaper, ad-supported option, and 25% of its new subscribers have signed up for the tier in territories where it’s available.

But media companies are grappling with the question of whether ad-level subscriptions will offset other losses.

“I don’t think we quite know the answer yet,” said Jonathan Miller, a former Hulu board member and current CEO of Integrated Media, which specializes in digital media investments. “But I think we’ll learn [subscription, ad-free] a customer who does not curse will be the most valuable. Mathematics has to be learned over time as the playing field stabilizes.’

Disney, which is also the majority owner of Hulu, has the largest number of ad-supported subscriptions, followed by Peacock, Paramount+, Warner Bros. Discovery – which will soon have Max and Discovery+ merged – and Netflix, according to Antén. Hulu and Peacock are the two streamers with the most subscribers at ad-supported levels, the data provider said.

“I see FAST as a replacement for the old syndication business. There are several ways to monetize television,” said Bill Rouhana, the company’s CEO Chicken soup to entertain the soulwhich owns ad-supported streaming services including Crackle and Redbox, as well as FAST channels.

Offering both a library of on-demand content and a curated channel guide, free streaming services have seen explosive growth in recent years. Fox and Paramount acquired Tubi and Pluto, respectively, not long before the ratings surge. Stores have become a badge of honor in corporate earnings.

For these larger media companies, it has also become a place for their own libraries. Pluto shows earlier episodes from the lucrative “Yellowstone” series, which also saw several spinoffs bolster Paramount+.

“It’s really been in the last year that we’ve seen a seismic shift,” said Adam Lewinson, Tubi’s chief content officer. “Given the overarching challenges of the paid streaming model and the subsequent layering of subscriber fatigue. That’s where people are looking more closely at their spending in tough economic times. Additionally, nearly 1 in 3 streamers are now reducing their streaming spending.”

For Fox, which focuses on sports and news on traditional TV channels, Tubi is the answer to streaming. As CEO Lachlan Murdoch previously noted in earnings, Tubi was the centerpiece of Fox’s Upfront presentation last week. Management praised Tubi for producing the first-ever report on streaming company Nielsen’s measurement in recent memory.

Paramount similarly emphasized the growth of Pluto. During the company’s upfront dinners with advertisers, Pluto was a key part of the conversation, said David Lawenda, Paramount’s director of digital advertising.

Warner Bros. Discovery has said it plans to create its own FAST channels. Meanwhile, it pulled content from HBO Max and licensed it to Tubi and A year.

“Sharing your content through FAST channels as well, that’s probably the wisest thing. It could create strategic value beyond just cash,” Chicken Soup’s Rouhana told Soul Entertainment. “In a world where churn is a reality, being able to re-show content to lost subscribers and monetize it can only be a good thing.”