Is CTV Not As Great As We Thought?

Connected TV is supposed to bring a rebirth to TV advertising. Imagine combining the big-screen sight, sound and motion of television with the precision targeting and interactivity of digital ads — it should be the ultimate medium! So much so that analysts have predicted robust growth for years, and a wide expansion of advertisers. Instead of the typical 400 or so big brands, CTV would bring on millions of advertisers, a la Meta and Facebook.

Well, if you look at recent data from eMarketer, you might find some of your CTV exuberance deflated a bit. Among advertisers who are spending on CTV, a whole lot of them are just moving budgets around. Forty percent said they are funding CTV from existing linear dollars, and another 40% from non-video digital ads (in other words, display, which is struggling). It doesn’t paint a picture of boom and innovation.

Don’t get me wrong — CTV is still growing at a nice clip. But this line from eMarketer struck me as a bit sobering: “CTV will remain an important channel for advertisers, but we expect more moderate growth for 2025 and beyond.”

In the meantime, here are some other big headlines from this week:

• Peter Naylor is Latest Senior Ad-Sales Executive to Exit Netflix - Brian Steinberg [Variety]

• A Primer On The DOJ’s Upcoming Antitrust Trial Against Google — Sarah Sluis [AdExchanger]

• Here's What NBCU Is Charging for the First Programmatic Olympics — Bill Bradley & Catherine Perloff [Adweek]

• Brian Lesser returns to GroupM with an expected focus on advancing tech — Michael Bürgi and Ronan Shields [Digiday]