Observed Signal · Mar 6, 2026 · Survey · Source: State of Streaming · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Advertisers Boost CTV Spend, Demand Better ROI
A March 2026 industry survey from Advertiser Perceptions and Premion finds most advertisers increasing Connected TV (CTV) budgets in 2026 — roughly seven in ten plan an average 17% spend rise. The report shows the increase is largely a reallocation from linear TV, search and social, with unified teams now controlling the majority of streaming budgets. Programmatic is slated to handle about half of CTV purchases, but buyers complain the ecosystem remains fractured, complicating reach measurement across platforms and walled gardens. As CTV becomes core to media plans, advertisers are demanding simpler activation, improved technology and clearer measurement to justify larger investments.
Significant advertiser budget reallocation into CTV and growing programmatic volume combined with unmet measurement needs will influence media planners, adtech vendors, and measurement providers.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Survey (Advertiser Perceptions and Premion) reports 70% of advertisers plan to increase CTV spend in 2026 by an average of 17%.
- Budgets are being reallocated from linear TV, search and social to fund CTV growth.
- Unified teams now control 55% of streaming TV budgets.
- Programmatic buying is expected to handle roughly half of all CTV ad purchases.
- Advertisers report the CTV ecosystem is fractured and are demanding simpler activation, smarter technology, and clearer measurement.
Connected Companies & Entities
1 Entity mappedRelated Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
CTV Advertising Surge: Local Markets Embrace Total Video Strategy
A 2026 CTV/OTT advertiser survey by Advertiser Perceptions shows the market moving from experimentation to structural commitment: 70% of CTV advertisers plan to increase CTV/OTT spend in 2026 with budgets rising an average 17%. Integrated or hybrid teams now control 55% of CTV and streaming TV budgets, and roughly 80% of advertisers say combining linear TV and CTV drives stronger brand and performance results. Growth is increasingly driven by regional and local advertisers, enabled by improved targeting, flexible buying and expanded premium inventory. Advertisers prioritize premium environments (97% agree they improve ROI) and call out fragmentation across providers as a major barrier. AI-driven real-time optimization is viewed as highly valuable (58%), though only 44% expect it to be widely available in 2026.
Podcasts Became TV — Ad Budgets Lag
Michael Beach's State of the Screens column argues podcast listening reached TV-scale attention in 2025 (about 40 billion hours) while podcast advertising remained small (~$3B). Weekly U.S. podcast listeners are ~115M, consumption increasingly includes video on TV screens, and a few top shows capture a disproportionate share of hours. The piece frames the issue as an infrastructure gap — weak identity, measurement, and programmatic plumbing — that must be solved before ad dollars follow attention.
FreeWheel Launches Series-Level Reporting for CTV Buyers
FreeWheel announced Video Content Report, a new series-level reporting tool available exclusively within FreeWheel Buyer Cloud. The report uses impression-level, publisher-sourced ad server data from FreeWheel Streaming Hub to provide post-campaign visibility of where premium CTV impressions ran, aiming to close a transparency gap for buyers. Launch partners include A+E Global Media, Spectrum Reach, Fuse Media, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery and Xumo. FreeWheel positions the capability as an in-platform, scalable way to confirm content alignment and brand safety without separate manual workflows. Advertiser Perceptions research cited in the release indicates more than half of CTV advertisers would shift spend to publishers that provide show- or series-level transparency.
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