TV has the power to capture people’s attention unlike any other channel – and for advertisers, reaching the right audiences during TV’s most-watched moments is vital for success. Live events and sports streaming are putting programmatic TV back in the spotlight, and new self-serve ad tools have re-ignited CTV’s growth more than 15% since 2024.
While upfront investments have become a mix of linear and streaming ads, more than half of advertisers say their highest priority media buys will be the ones that show clear performance outcomes. As advertisers stay focused on measurable results, addressable TV is critical to giving brands greater return on investment and satisfying viewers on every channel.
The evolution of streaming and digital has made the entire TV industry more performance-focused, according to Larry Allen, VP, Global Strategy – Addressable, Data, and Measurement Partnerships at FreeWheel, a Comcast Company.
Comcast is providing unparalleled addressability and measurement for advertisers through unmatched reach across hundreds of millions of viewers, beloved content and experiences, and the power of data collaboration.
“Gone are the days when it took a week or a month to get information back on what [TV advertising] worked,” Allen said in the RampUp 2025 session Has TV Really Tipped? Unlocking Real Results in Data-Driven TV. “Now we’re doing it the same day, and that has a big impact on how performance marketers reallocate dollars to ensure they’re seeing conversions.”
But to deliver the tangible metrics advertisers expect, TV publishers must meet viewers everywhere they’re watching – no matter the screen, show, or service.
Connecting audiences on every screen
The shift from linear set-top box TV viewing to multi-screen streaming has been tectonic. In the past year, streaming broke records as it reached 40% of all TV viewership in the US, and today almost 80% of homes own a smart TV.
According to Allen, adapting to this shift has been a balancing act.
“Advertisers need to understand where their customers are consuming content so they can buy inventory to reach the right target audience and measure that inventory,” he said.
To enrich their audience inventory, Comcast enables household-level targeting through linear, streaming, and broadband connections. To accurately match audience data across the converged TV ecosystem, Comcast relies on LiveRamp’s identity solutions.
“Identity is at the core of it all,” Allen pointed out. “Working with LiveRamp, we can extend [identity resolution] for our clients so they have confidence in who they’re planning against, where they’re activating, and then measure accordingly.”
Comcast is making next-level addressability possible everywhere – even on linear.
Just like streaming content is delivered over a digital IP address, Comcast set-top boxes are also IP-enabled, creating audience inventories that look digital and can be activated automatically. The result? The value of live linear feeds is catching up to streaming. For advertisers, inventories will look, operate, and be measured the same everywhere viewers watch – a game-changing advancement.
“When you are watching TV in your living room, it captures your attention in a big way. It’s driving the consumer into the next step of the journey, and in many cases that’s on the mobile device in their hand while they’re watching TV,” Allen said. “We can now connect those dots inside of Comcast homes.”
The next step to unlock new opportunities for advertisers is deepening collaboration between distributors, programmers, and technology providers across the TV ecosystem – and data clean rooms are turning this unprecedented collaboration into reality.
Clean rooms go prime time
The addressable, programmatic evolution of TV advertising has opened the door for clean room collaboration. With the right partner, clean rooms enable more sophisticated data collaboration and measurement between TV partners in a way advertisers can trust. Allen said he didn’t believe this technology was ready for prime time a few years ago, but now that’s changed.
“[Clean rooms] enable configurations for all the privacy protections. You understand what queries are being run, you have oversight and monitoring, and that’s important to us.” Just as important, he added, as bringing the right data sets together to deliver better performance insights so advertisers can optimize faster and spend smarter.
With LiveRamp, Comcast brings together its premium first-party data for more reliable measurement when advertisers need it most – and clean room partnerships will scale this performance. Comcast already collaborates with partners like NBC, Warner Brothers, Discovery, Paramount, and DirecTV Dish on self-service audience inventories, but Allen said the company plans to invest heavily in clean rooms as it explores future collaborations.
Amidst the transformation of the TV landscape, one thing won’t change anytime soon: the need to serve advertisers better inventories, new audience insights, and high-impact results – and addressability is the star of the show.
“Addressable TV is no longer slow and arduous. You can do things with TV just like you can with Facebook, Google, and other digital platforms,” Allen said, emphasizing this massive win for marketers. “We’re collaborating across distributors and programmers in a way we’ve never collaborated before, and this unlocks a lot of potential for advertisers to understand the power of TV.”
Learn how Comcast partners with LiveRamp to unlock addressable, measurable TV everywhere – enabling advertisers to confidently reach audiences on every channel.