Connected TV (CTV) advertising works in 2026 because it delivers the reach of broadcast television with the targeting and measurement of digital. US CTV ad spend is projected to reach approximately 38 billion dollars in 2026, according to eMarketer's January 2026 forecast. For the first time, CTV upfront commitments have surpassed primetime linear TV upfronts.
How Much Are Advertisers Spending on CTV in 2026?
US CTV ad spend is projected to reach approximately 38 billion dollars in 2026, a 14 percent increase over 2025, according to eMarketer's January 2026 forecast published on Statista. Connected TV advertising is growing at a 12 percent compound annual growth rate, as reported by Teads' February 2026 industry analysis. That growth rate outpaces the broader digital advertising market.
eMarketer projects the CTV channel will reach 51 billion dollars by 2029. CTV device reach already matches these growing ad dollars. According to StackAdapt's 2026 connected TV statistics report, 89.5 percent of US households own at least one internet-connected TV device. eMarketer further projects 243.6 million US CTV viewers in 2026, spread across approximately 119.8 million households.
Has CTV Overtaken Linear TV Advertising?
Yes, CTV upfront ad spending overtook linear TV advertising for the first time in the 2026 upfronts. US CTV upfront ad spending will reach 17.73 billion dollars in 2026, exceeding primetime linear TV upfront ad spending, which stands at 16.98 billion dollars, according to eMarketer's Digital Video Forecast for Q2 2026. Combined TV and CTV spending overall is growing just 1.1 percent through 2029, meaning CTV's share of this total keeps rising even as the total barely moves.
Why it works: Advertisers are shifting committed, pre-negotiated budget from linear television into CTV because CTV lets buyers target specific households rather than time slots, while still buying premium live content at scale. eMarketer's Q2 2026 forecast, released May 4, 2026, attributes this crossover directly to advertisers prioritizing addressability over blanket reach.
Why Are Advertisers Underspending on CTV Relative to Viewing Time?
Advertisers are still underspending on CTV relative to viewing time, and that gap is the clearest opportunity in the channel. CTV captured 20.2 percent of time spent with media in 2025 but attracted only 7.7 percent of total ad spend, according to eMarketer data cited in StackAdapt's 2026 CTV statistics report.
Why it works: Ad budgets move slower than audience behavior because measurement and buying infrastructure took years to standardize across CTV platforms. Each platform used its own signals and reporting until recently, which made advertisers hesitant to commit budget at the scale their own viewership data justified.
What Changed to Make CTV Measurement Trustworthy in 2026?
Two standardization efforts closed most of the measurement gap in 2026: the IAB Tech Lab's Open Measurement SDK and the industry's shared Conversion API frameworks, according to Teads' February 2026 CTV trends report. Both give buyers a consistent way to compare performance across CTV platforms that previously reported on incompatible systems.
Fifty-five percent of marketers now believe attention-based metrics will become the standard for both CTV measurement and buying, per the same Teads report. Attention metrics track whether a viewer was actually looking at the screen during an ad, not just whether the ad loaded, which matters more on CTV because viewers often multitask on a second device.
Why it works: A shared measurement standard lets a media buyer compare a Hulu placement against a Roku placement against a YouTube CTV placement using the same numbers. Before Open Measurement SDK adoption, that comparison required manual reconciliation, which slowed budget shifts into the channel.
Where Is CTV Growth Coming From?
Amazon's Prime Video ad tier is the clearest named example of where 2026's CTV growth originates. Amazon Prime Video's ad tier launch pushed average CPMs down across the category, and by Q2 2025 only Netflix and Max still carried average CPMs above 30 dollars, according to eMarketer's CTV research hub. Falling CPMs pulled in advertisers who had been priced out of premium streaming inventory, a direct, traceable cause of 2026's volume growth.
Seventy percent of advertisers plan to lift CTV investment by an average of 17 percent in 2026, according to a Premion survey cited in Digital Applied's June 2026 CTV performance guide. Marketers reallocated an average of 36 percent of their linear TV budgets into CTV during 2025, per the same report.
Why it works: A lower CPM floor, set by Amazon's entry into the ad-supported tier, made premium streaming inventory affordable for advertisers below the largest national brands. That price move, not a change in viewer behavior, is what widened the buyer pool.
How Should a Brand Set Its 2026 CTV Budget?
A brand should set its 2026 CTV budget starting from the upfront crossover, not last year's linear TV line item. Because CTV upfronts now exceed primetime linear upfronts in dollar terms, treat CTV as the primary video buy and treat remaining linear spend as a supplement for audiences CTV does not yet reach.
Reserve budget for both awareness placements on premium ad-supported tiers and performance placements bought programmatically, since the two behave differently. eMarketer's forecast shows CTV growth cooling from 14 percent in 2026 to roughly 11 percent annually through 2029, so lock in current CPM advantages before the category matures and prices rise. For the broader shift in ad-buying technology behind this move, see the future of programmatic advertising.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much will CTV advertising cost in 2026?
US CTV ad spend is projected at approximately 38 billion dollars in 2026, according to eMarketer. Entry points vary by platform. Amazon Prime Video's ad tier launch pushed average CPMs down across the category, with only Netflix and Max still charging above 30 dollars per thousand impressions as of Q2 2025.
Has CTV really overtaken linear TV?
In the 2026 upfronts, yes. US CTV upfront commitments reached 17.73 billion dollars, exceeding primetime linear TV upfronts at 16.98 billion dollars, according to eMarketer's Q2 2026 Digital Video Forecast. Combined TV and CTV spending is projected to surpass traditional TV advertising outright by 2028.
What is the biggest CTV opportunity for 2026?
The gap between attention and ad spend. CTV captured 20.2 percent of media time in 2025 but only 7.7 percent of ad spend, according to eMarketer, meaning audiences are already watching in volumes advertiser budgets have not yet matched.
Related Reading
- The Future of Programmatic Advertising
- PR and Advertising Together
- Retail Media and AI at Advertising Week 2025
- Building Ethical Global Advertising Systems
