The Reinvention of CTV: 2026 12 Realities for Programmatic and Measurement

Even in the era of viral short-form video and social media, CTV remains a powerful marketing channel for brands. Global TV advertising spend is nearly $340 billion per year, and in the US, it accounts for nearly one-fifth of overall marketing budgets. Live sports and tentpole programming – from the NFL to the Olympics – continue to attract record audiences, increasingly on streaming platforms like Peacock, Prime Video, and YouTube.

But the conversation around CTV has shifted from whether it would emerge as a major advertising channel to how marketers can capitalize on what makes it fundamentally different from linear TV. Today, leaders at Netflix, NBCUniversal, and other major platforms are actively reimagining how CTV advertising works – from the ad experience itself to the AI-powered measurement frameworks that prove its value. At RampUp 2026, those leaders shared what they are doing right now. 

Here’s what the new reality looks like across 12 key areas shaping connected TV advertising in 2026 and beyond.

Key takeaways

• Streaming has officially overtaken cable and broadcast viewing, pushing brands to rethink how they approach CTV advertising and measurement.
• Modern CTV strategies rely on identity resolution, addressable advertising, and cross-screen measurement to improve targeting and campaign performance.
• Outcome-based measurement and in-flight optimization are replacing traditional TV metrics like GRPs, giving marketers faster and more actionable insights.
• Commerce media networks and shoppable TV ads are turning connected TV into a performance-driven channel that can directly influence purchases.
• The future of CTV depends on secure data collaboration, AI-powered personalization, and unified cross-platform advertising strategies.

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1. CTV and streaming growth

Streaming viewership has already eclipsed both cable and broadcast TV in total viewing time. EMARKETER reports that connected TV ad budgets are forecasted to exceed 40% of global ad spend by 2030.

This growth is driven by:

• Increased cord cutting as consumers seek flexible, on-demand viewing
• The proliferation of streaming services offering ad-supported tiers
• Improvements in ad targeting and measurement on CTV platforms

For advertisers, CTV offers digital precision paired with the high impact of premium video content – but the fragmented media landscape also creates challenges for CTV data activation and measurement.

2. The content-first ad experience

In 2026, the biggest platforms are not simply running ads inside streaming content – they are rethinking what an ad should feel like in the CTV environment. At RampUp 2026, Nicolle Pangis, VP of Advertising at Netflix, made the case that the industry should not simply “lift and shift” linear TV ad models into digital spaces. “That would be really doing a disservice to all of us in the room, to the consumers,” Pangis said.

Netflix’s approach focuses on member experience. Where linear TV and most CTV competitors rely on a consistent, high volume of ads across every viewer, Netflix is doing things differently:

• Running a lighter ad load and adjusting delivery based on individual viewer tolerance and relevance
• Matching the right advertiser with the right member at the right moment, rather than filling an ad slot simply because one exists
• Investing in creative formats that integrate brands with Netflix's own IP

One standout example: a campaign that brought TurboTax together with WWE on Netflix. The integration wove tax-time messaging into the world of professional wrestling, making the ad experience entertaining enough that viewers were actively searching for the spot. As Pangis put it, “When you’re searching for advertising to look at it to be entertained, that’s a good thing.”

Underpinning this strategy is the same data and AI infrastructure that powers Netflix's content recommendation engine. The platform uses vast amounts of viewer data to determine not just which content a member wants to see, but which ads are most likely to resonate.

3. Identity resolution

Inaccurate identity can lead to over-delivery of ads, causing negative consumer sentiment, or it can mean ads bypass the intended audience altogether. Identity resolution is the process of connecting and verifying all relevant audience data.

As consumer journeys spread across more touchpoints – including new AI surfaces like conversational search and agentic shopping – and consumer privacy regulations grow more stringent, the ability to create a unified view of the customer is both more challenging and even more critical. Durable identifiers like RampID make it possible to support person-based targeting everywhere your customers spend time – across browsers, mobile devices, and CTV.

4. Addressable advertising

Unlike traditional TV ads broadcast to all viewers, addressable advertising allows precise targeting of specific households or individual viewers. This level of granularity enables more relevant ad experiences for consumers, increased campaign efficiency, and improved ROAS.

In the CTV ecosystem, traditional cookie-based targeting is largely ineffective. Advertisers need a sophisticated data collaboration platform that integrates various identifiers and data sources, including authenticated login data from individuals and households. These platforms enable the creation of trusted, addressable audiences across both linear TV and CTV, maximizing overall reach and engagement.

Netflix’s programmatic expansion shows what addressability looks like in practice. The platform recently launched partnerships with Amazon and Yahoo, allowing advertisers to bring their existing audience definitions into the Netflix environment. As Pangis explained at RampUp, “How do we allow brands to leverage the audiences that matter to them, to create consistency in how they plan, how they activate, and how they measure Netflix relative to everybody else they’re buying?”

5. In-flight optimization and measurement

For years, TV measurement was a post-campaign exercise – analysts collected data, transferred it manually to measurement partners, and delivered a static report weeks after the campaign ended. Always-on, in-flight measurement that enables mid-campaign optimization is replacing that model.

PJ Gasparini, SVP of Insights and Measurement at NBCUniversal, described the shift at RampUp: “Historically, we’ve been very focused on post-campaign measurement and it was a very manual process.” NBCU’s answer is the Performance Insights Hub (PIH), a proprietary intelligence platform co-developed with LiveRamp. The platform represents a fundamental shift in how measurement works:

• Campaign data automatically flows into a LiveRamp clean room as soon as a campaign begins running
• Measurement functions execute on a weekly cadence, creating what Gasparini calls a “flywheel” of performance feedback
• Results are delivered back systematically, supporting a cross-platform view of reach, frequency, and full-funnel KPIs – from awareness through mid-funnel search engagement down to conversion

AI and automation make this cadence operationally possible, replacing manual, fragmented workflows with governed, near-real-time analysis so insights surface fast enough to act on in market. “I think the biggest unlock of PIH is the weekly mid-campaign insights that could be used to optimize the campaign,” Gasparini said. “That's just not something that ever really existed in TV.”

6. Standardization over GRPs

One of the strongest signals from RampUp 2026 was a unified call to stop applying linear TV measurement standards to digital environments. Pangis framed it as an opportunity: “Flexibility is really key. Because at the end of the day, an advertiser is looking for a specific outcome. Ensuring we don't lift and shift because there's a lot more we can do in the digital world than we could do in a linear world." 

That flexibility takes many forms:

• Data clean rooms for secure measurement
• Third-party measurement partners for independent validation
• Marketing mix models or agency-owned technology tailored to specific advertiser goals

Gasparini echoed the urgency from NBCU’s perspective: “It’s important, as the shift happens from traditional linear viewing to people viewing on streaming platforms, that we can unify performance and really have more standardized metrics so that we can understand, regardless of how consumers are accessing that content, what impact it’s having.”

Outcome-based measurement – tied to conversions, sales lift, and brand impact – is replacing gross ratings points (GRPs) as the standard for evaluating CTV performance. Marketers who still rely on legacy metrics risk misjudging the value of their premium video investments.

7. Cross-screen measurement and currency

As viewing habits splinter across devices and platforms, the importance of cross-screen measurement has never been greater. Advertisers need a holistic view of campaign performance across linear TV, CTV, digital video, and beyond to fully understand audience engagement and ROAS.

This is driving innovation across the ecosystem, including: 

• The emergence of new currencies beyond traditional GRPs
• Increased focus on outcome-based measurement tied to conversions or sales
• Advanced identity resolution that connects TV ad exposures across screens

Cross-screen data allows brands to optimize their media mix and reinforce messages across channels with retargeted campaigns.

Learn how Paramount and Circana personalize cross-screen TV inventory based on household-level purchases.

8. Commerce media networks

Commerce media continues to be one of the fastest-growing categories in advertising, with global spend exceeding $175 billion and forecast to account for a quarter of all US ad spend. A commerce media network is an advertising business that retailers or marketplaces build to monetize their valuable first-party shopper data through formats such as: 

• Onsite placements on retailer websites and apps (e.g., sponsored listings)
• Offsite advertising across the open web, social media, and CTV
• In-store digital signage and other physical touchpoints

As commerce media networks mature, brands that can effectively integrate these partners into their overall TV advertising strategy will see outsized performance. Since retailers control the transaction, commerce media networks offer closed-loop measurement – giving marketers trusted outcomes data to maximize every TV ad dollar.

9. Shoppable TV ads

With the rise of CTV and digital video, TV has transformed from a broad medium that builds brand and product awareness into a performance channel that directly drives sales through enhanced targeting. Shoppable TV ads allow viewers to purchase products right from their TV screen, streamlining the path from inspiration to purchase.

These formats can be a game changer, but they also carry premium CPMs and production costs. That makes it critical for marketers to activate their audience data to ensure on-target delivery – and to connect shoppable interactions back to their broader measurement framework so that every conversion is captured and attributed accurately.

Learn how Albertsons partners with LiveRamp and Google to reach more customers with CTV campaigns.

10. Creative personalization and optimization

TV advertising used to be a matter of finding the right programs and audiences at the right times, then delivering a single message at scale. Today, CTV creatives can be tailored to each audience segment – or even to individual viewers – and optimized in-flight based on performance signals.

With advanced data collaboration and the right technology partners, brands can: 

• Tailor ad creatives to specific custom audiences, demographics, or segments
• Dynamically adjust messaging based on time of day, weather, or location
• Test and optimize multiple creative variations in real-time

Creative personalization at scale requires a robust data foundation and the right technology partners to connect audience insights to creative decisioning. AI accelerates this process — enabling teams to test more creative variations, more often, and scale what works without adding operational complexity.

See how NBCUniversal, LiveRamp, and Google's Display & Video 360 partner to enable PAIR across CTV — powering better performance for marketers on the big screen.

11. Data collaboration partnerships

In the fragmented world of CTV and streaming – made more complex by new AI surfaces and agentic workflows – no single platform has a complete view of audience engagement. This is why data collaboration has become essential – or, as Gasparini put it at RampUp, “Collaboration is not an option here. It’s really a necessity.”

In practice, this means:

• Securely combining first-party data from multiple sources to build richer audience profiles and expand viewer reach
• Sharing aggregated performance data to benchmark and improve campaign effectiveness across platforms
• Collaborating with partners to develop new targeting and measurement solutions 

Often, data collaboration happens through a data clean room, a ‌secure environment where brands and publishers unlock insights that neither party could generate alone.

Publishers and platforms that can collaborate transparently on data – bringing together exposure, audience, and outcome signals in a secure, governed environment – are the ones that will deliver the most actionable measurement and the strongest AI-powered performance.

12. Cross-platform and portfolio advertising

With the explosion of CTV devices, streaming services, and digital platforms, the most effective marketers are embracing a cross-platform approach. Rather than juggling operational silos, fully integrated ad tech and a unified customer data strategy enable marketers to: 

• Reinforce brand identity with consistent messages across CTV and online video (OLV)
• Enhance audience reach with better deduplication and cross-platform frequency caps
• Maximize campaign performance by shifting budgets toward high-ROAS segments.

With a comprehensive view of every investment, you can deliver targeted messages to your audiences wherever and however they watch.

Collaboration is key in the future of TV advertising

The CTV landscape in 2026 looks fundamentally different from even a year ago. The platforms that are winning are the ones treating advertising as a product – one that demands the same innovation, data infrastructure, and consumer-first thinking they bring to their content experiences.

As Nicolle Pangis described Netflix’s approach: “It’s this balance of data and technology, making things faster, more efficient, more personalized – balancing that with a really incredible creative experience.”

And as PJ Gasparini made clear from NBCU’s perspective, the infrastructure to prove that value – automated, always-on, built on secure data collaboration – is no longer aspirational. It is live and already changing how advertisers plan and optimize their TV investments. For marketers facing rising expectations, fragmented tools, and new AI-driven risks, that data infrastructure is the foundation for confidently delivering better performance at speed.

The path forward requires embracing new measurement frameworks, investing in secure data collaboration, and partnering with platforms that offer transparency, flexibility, and outcome-based accountability. The brands that lean in now – testing, learning, and building alongside these evolving platforms – will be the ones that capture the full value of CTV's reinvention.

FAQ

What is CTV, and how does connected TV advertising differ from linear TV in 2026?

Connected TV refers to any television content delivered through an internet connection – typically through streaming apps on smart TVs, gaming consoles, or devices like Roku and Amazon Fire TV. Linear TV refers to the traditional broadcast and cable model, where content airs on a fixed schedule.

In 2026, the differences extend well beyond distribution. CTV enables addressable, household-level (or individual-level) ad targeting, while linear TV still relies on broad demographic segments. CTV platforms increasingly offer in-flight measurement, allowing advertisers to optimize mid-campaign; linear TV measurement still depends largely on post-campaign reporting. CTV ad loads tend to be lower and more personalized, and platforms like Netflix are investing in creative formats that integrate brand messaging with entertainment content. Most importantly, the industry is moving away from applying linear TV metrics like GRPs to CTV, instead adopting outcome-based measurement tied to conversions, sales lift, and brand impact.

How is AI used in CTV ad planning?

AI plays a growing role at every stage of the CTV advertising process, from planning through delivery to measurement. 

In campaign planning, marketers can rely on platforms to analyze viewer data to build media plans optimized for a specific advertiser’s goals – plans that may differ from traditional approaches to reflecting what the data says will drive the best outcome. That intelligence extends into delivery, where AI personalizes which ads reach which viewers based on viewing behavior, engagement patterns, and contextual relevance, while dynamically adjusting ad load based on individual tolerance. On the measurement side, AI accelerates the analysis of campaign performance data, enabling the near-real-time insights that make in-flight optimization possible.