Digital audiences also show 98% ad completion rate.

Advertisers have been returning to television, in both linear and digital forms, just as old beloved shows have started returning to screens.

As more publishers and networks continue experimenting with streaming live video, FreeWheel, part of the Comcast Advanced Advertising Group, has seen a marked increase in ad views during live news streaming. Ad views during live news programming grew by 150 percent from Q2 2016 to Q2 2017, with most of the growth coming from full-episode and live views for news, entertainment and sports.

Entertainment content accounted for 93 percent of full-episode ad views, while sports drove 73 percent of livestreaming ad views.

According to FreeWheel, this indicates an overall diversification of monetizing livestreaming. Streaming devices have grown from accounting for 1 percent of total ad views to 29 percent in the past four years, while desktop devices went from 90 percent to 27 percent.

Digital audiences also are proving to be highly engaged, with about a 98 percent ad completion rate as of earlier this year.

According to FreeWheel, viewing habits have started to shift even more dramatically when it comes to premium video views. Over two-thirds of premium video ad views on mobile came from full-episode and live content, meaning smartphone users are watching more than just short clips.

This makes mobile viewing incremental with traditional television. About 49 percent of content consumed on smartphones are full-length episodes, compared with 35 percent of full-episode views on desktops or laptops.

Premium ad views grew 17 percent in a year due to live and full-episode monetization opportunities and the growth of multichannel video programming distributors, or MVPDs, and direct-to-consumer offerings. All of that growth led the TV upfront market to outperform expectations, reaching $19.7 billion this year.