Connected TV isn’t an emerging channel anymore, it’s the one absorbing the budget. CTV will account for more than half of converged TV ad spending by 2028, up from 42.2% this year. CTV upfront/NewFront spending crosses over linear TV upfront spending for the first time in 2026 — $17.73B versus $16.98B — and that gap widens to $20.34B versus $16.54B by 2027. Fewer than half of US households will even carry a traditional pay TV subscription by the end of this year. The shift isn’t coming, it’s already happened, and now the question is whether your media plan, and your partner, are built for it.
The pace of that shift is only accelerating. The number of US streaming TV advertisers grew from 14,580 to over 20,000 in a single year, and that growth was overwhelmingly driven by advertisers spending under $1 million annually. CTV stopped being an enterprise-only channel. At the same time, 44% of ad agency professionals now expect their CTV, linear, and YouTube buying teams to merge into one team, up from 33% today, because managing them separately no longer reflects how people watch. Here’s what’s driving CTV right now, what’s still holding it back, and what to look for in a partner who can navigate it all.
Where CTV stands going into the rest of 2026
A few numbers show just how quickly the landscape has changed:
- The number of streaming platforms generating at least $1 billion in annual CTV ad revenue has quadrupled since 2020 — from YouTube and Hulu to a list that now includes Roku, Amazon, Peacock, Netflix, Disney+, and Tubi.
- Streaming services will pull in nearly half (49.3%) of all US video subscription revenue this year, up from 27% in 2021.
- CTV overtook linear TV in time spent back in 2025. It’s projected to overtake linear in ad spending by 2028, and in ad impressions by 2030.
- Ad-supported tiers are becoming the default way people watch: fewer than 50 million subscription streaming viewers will remain totally ad-free by 2030, and platforms like Peacock and Amazon Prime Video already lean heavily on ad-supported viewers for the bulk of their audience.
- Consumers are voting with their wallets in the other direction too. The average cost of an ad-free streaming plan has climbed from $9 to $16 since 2020, and free ad-supported services (FASTs) are closing the programming-quality gap with subscription platforms in viewers’ eyes.
The takeaway for advertisers: CTV inventory is expanding, ad-supported audiences are growing, and more advertisers are entering the market. That creates more opportunity, but also more complexity around where to buy CTV, how to reach the right audiences, and how to measure performance across an increasingly fragmented ecosystem.
The challenges still holding CTV back
That growth doesn’t erase the challenges advertisers still face when buying CTV. It raises the stakes for having a partner that knows how to navigate them. Three challenges consistently show up when advertisers are asked what’s stopping them from investing more:
- Proving ROI. Difficulty proving incremental return on ad spend is the single biggest reason CTV buyers hesitate to invest more, cited by 37.9% of buyers, ahead of high CPMs (30.7%) and lack of supply-path transparency (27.4%). Insufficient measurement and attribution is also the top barrier to increased CTV spend overall, cited by 49% of media planners, followed closely by limited show- or content-level data (47%).
- Measurement complexity. Measurement and attribution standards are still evolving, and the industry hasn’t converged on shared currencies. Nielsen, VideoAmp, Comscore, and iSpot.tv all hold overlapping but inconsistent partnerships across major networks, which means the same campaign can post different numbers depending on whose measurement you trust. It’s no surprise that 47% of CTV buyers expect measurement and attribution standards to see the biggest improvement over the next year, more than any other area.
- Live sports. Sports remain a crucial part of converged TV, but they’re still overwhelmingly a linear play — 81.7% of sports ad spending runs through traditional TV versus 18.3% on CTV, compared to a 57.8%/42.2% split for converged TV overall. Live sports inventory sells out early, most of it isn’t available through streaming at all, and CPMs run high when it is.
None of these are reasons to pull back from CTV. They are reasons to be more selective about who manages it. The right partner should know how to navigate fragmented inventory, measurement, attribution, and premium content while keeping the media strategy tied to what the advertiser is ultimately trying to accomplish.
What to look for in a CTV advertising partner
1. A plan to unify linear and CTV measurement, not run them as two separate line items
As CTV, linear, and YouTube buying continue to converge, advertisers need a way to understand reach and frequency across channels, not just evaluate each one in isolation. Ask prospective partners how they approach deduplicated reach and frequency across linear and streaming, including whether they can integrate with third-party measurement providers like Comscore, an industry standard for cross-platform measurement. These solutions may come with additional costs, so it’s worth understanding what’s included, what requires a separate measurement partner, and how that data will be incorporated into your overall reporting.
2. A partner who treats CTV as a demand engine, not a self-attributing conversion channel
CTV’s value shows up differently than lower-funnel channels like search or display. Its biggest impact is often the lift it creates downstream — driving people to search for your brand, engage with retargeting, or visit your site directly — rather than conversions that tie back to the CTV impression itself. A partner who reports only same-channel, click-through results is measuring CTV like a channel it was never built to be, and setting an expectation it can’t meet on its own.
3. Real measurement methodology, not just completion rate
Since measurement and attribution are cited as both the top expected improvement area and the top barrier to more CTV spend, ask exactly how a partner attributes results. Platforms like The Trade Desk (TTD) can support post-view and cross-device attribution using a combination of deterministic and probabilistic methods, depending on the campaign. That means advertisers can better understand what happens after someone sees a CTV ad without necessarily adding a separate measurement partner or incremental cost. Additional third-party measurement, such as foot traffic or brand lift studies, may come at an added cost. The key is understanding what methodology is being used, what’s already included, and when additional measurement makes sense.
4. Pricing that aligns with what’s included
A lower CPM isn’t automatically a warning sign, but it should prompt a deeper dive into what’s being purchased. When a rate comes in meaningfully under the rest of the market, something is usually traded off to get there, such as inventory verification, first- and third-party targeting depth, brand safety controls, or the reporting and account management behind it. Ask a prospective partner to walk through exactly what’s included at their price point: which inventory sources, what verification, what targeting, and who’s actively managing the campaign day to day. The comparison that matters isn’t CPM to CPM, it’s what each dollar is buying.
5. Comfort navigating fragmented measurement currencies
No single measurement provider has universal buy-in across networks right now. Your partner should be able to work across Nielsen, VideoAmp, Comscore, and platform-reported data and still give you one consistent read on performance, rather than asking you to reconcile four different scorecards yourself.
6. Access to show- and content-level data
Access to show- or content-level reporting remains an industry limitation, and the level of visibility can vary depending on how inventory is purchased. Ask prospective partners what reporting they can provide and at what level of granularity. At KORTX, publisher-level reporting is available directly in Kampus for CTV campaigns running through our Preferred Publisher Network, giving advertisers a clear view into where their media was delivered. Open inventory can also be reported at the domain level, though that visibility is less robust due to how data is passed through the broader CTV ecosystem.
7. A specific strategy for live sports, separate from general CTV buying
Sports inventory behaves differently: it’s often purchased months in advance, is viewed on linear as well as online streaming, and CPMs can run higher than standard CTV inventory. A partner worth hiring should be planning sports placements early, sourcing inventory beyond live in-game streaming (highlight shows, podcasts, sports talk shows), and setting realistic cost expectations upfront rather than surprising you later.
8. A team built to operate at your scale
The fastest-growing group of CTV advertisers is spending under $1 million a year, not running eight-figure media plans. If your budget sits in that range, you want a partner whose team, tools, and pricing are intentionally built for that scale, not a scaled-down version of an enterprise engagement, and senior people who stay on your account rather than disappearing after the pitch.
Red flags when evaluating a CTV advertising partner
A few vendor patterns to look out for:
- They pitch CTV as a stand-alone, bottom-funnel channel that’s positioned to perform like search or display.
- They promise completion rate and delivery but can’t connect CTV activity to leads, sales, or site activity.
- They can’t explain their measurement approach when you ask which currency or methodology they’re using, or why.
- A quoted CPM looks well below the rest of the market, and they can’t clearly walk you through what’s included at that price.
- They treat “CTV” as one bucket, with no visibility into which publishers or inventory categories your ads actually ran against.
- They default to last-touch attribution and don’t offer incrementality testing without an extra fee.
- They have no real plan for live sports beyond “we can get you some streaming inventory.”
- The senior strategist from the pitch is nowhere to be found three months into the engagement.
What good CTV partnership looks like
A strong CTV partner should be able to connect the entire video strategy, not just execute a streaming buy. That means looking at linear and CTV together, being intentional about where and why budget is allocated, and tying performance back to business outcomes rather than delivery metrics alone.
It also means transparency. Advertisers should understand how their campaigns are being measured, where their inventory is coming from, how premium opportunities like live sports fit into the plan, and what the results mean. As more budget and more advertisers move into CTV, the ability to navigate that complexity matters more than simply having access to the inventory.
Where KORTX fits
At KORTX, we help brands build a more connected video strategy, with CTV and digital video working as part of the broader demand engine rather than operating in isolation. That means thinking beyond impressions and completion rates and using post-view measurement, cross-device attribution, and other signals to better understand what happens after someone sees an ad.
That same thinking extends to how campaigns are built and managed. We bring together vetted inventory, audience strategies that incorporate first- and third-party data, brand safety controls, and active campaign management, with transparency into where media dollars are going and what they’re delivering.
And because KORTX supports brands and franchises across a range of budgets, CTV doesn’t have to be reserved for enterprise advertisers. We can help organizations determine where the channel fits, how it should complement the rest of their media strategy, and how to scale investment as performance and opportunity grow.
If you’re evaluating CTV partners or questioning whether your current video strategy is built for where the channel is headed, we’re happy to be a second opinion.
FAQ
What’s the difference between CTV, OTT, and streaming TV? CTV refers to advertising delivered to a connected television device. OTT is the broader category of video delivered over the internet rather than through cable or satellite, which includes CTV as well as viewing on phones, tablets, and computers. In practice, most advertisers use “CTV” to mean ad-supported streaming viewed on a television screen.
Is CTV worth it for smaller or mid-market advertisers? Increasingly, yes. Advertisers spending under $1 million annually were the fastest-growing group of CTV buyers over the past year, and platforms have expanded ad-supported tiers specifically to capture that demand. CTV is no longer a channel that requires an enterprise budget to make sense.
Is CTV a lower-funnel, performance channel like paid search? Not on its own. CTV is a mid-to-upper-funnel channel, and most of its value shows up as demand it creates for other channels to convert, not as conversions attributed directly to the CTV impression. Treating it as a closed-loop, self-attributing tactic sets an expectation the channel wasn’t built to meet alone.
How do you prove ROI on CTV spend? Move beyond completion rate and viewability. Look for post-view measurement and cross-device attribution to capture CTV’s effect on outcomes elsewhere in your funnel, and layer in incrementality testing or geo experiments to isolate that effect from the rest of your media mix. Those are the methods the strongest CTV buyers are prioritizing over the next year.
Does a lower CTV CPM mean I’m getting a worse deal? Not necessarily, but it’s worth asking why. A rate well below the rest of the market usually means something was traded off to get there — inventory verification, targeting depth, brand safety controls, or account management. The useful comparison isn’t CPM to CPM, it’s what’s actually included at each price point.
Why do CTV measurement numbers vary so much between reports? Because there’s no single measurement currency with universal adoption across networks yet. Nielsen, VideoAmp, Comscore, and iSpot.tv all hold different, overlapping partnerships, so the same campaign can look different depending on the source. A good partner reconciles this for you instead of leaving you to compare incompatible numbers.
Ready to take a closer look at your CTV strategy?
Whether you’re evaluating CTV partners or looking to get more from your current approach, we’re happy to pressure-test your strategy and talk through where there may be opportunities to improve.
Talk to KORTX about your CTV strategy.
Sources: EMARKETER, “The CTV Opportunity: Market Insights for Sales Teams,” July 2026 (Ross Benes); Pixability, “US YouTube & Connected TV Media Agency Survey,” January 2026; MediaRadar, “Streaming TV Report,” March 2026; Olyzon and EMARKETER Survey, “2026 CTV Optimization,” November 2025; Gracenote, “TV Audiences Have Shifted: Ad Dollars Have Not,” May 2026; EMARKETER Ad Buyer Insights Survey, “CTV,” June 2026; TiVo, “Q2 2025 Video Trends Report: North America.”