Buyers’ guidance for CTV in 2026

Connected TV enters 2026 with clear momentum. Guideline forecasts indicate the UK will be the second-fastest growing CTV market globally, behind only Canada.

Viewing behaviour is shifting just as decisively with LG reporting that 79% of CTV viewers now prefer lower-cost, ad-supported streaming. Meanwhile free, ad-supported TV in the UK has grown almost ten times faster than subscription video on demand over the past two years.

Yet for all that growth, buyer confidence has not fully caught up. CTV is widely discussed and regularly tested, but it is still approached with caution. Legacy TV assumptions sit alongside unresolved digital frustrations, leaving many planners unsure how much trust to place in the channel.

The familiar myths holding CTV back

Three objections continue to dominate CTV planning conversations. They are often framed as structural flaws rather than solvable planning challenges.

1. CTV is primarily a branding channel, with limited ability to drive measurable outcomes
2. The cost of entry is ubiquitously high, pricing challenger brands out through creative and media investment
3. Fragmentation makes reach, frequency and measurement hard to control

These concerns reflect how CTV looked several years ago and are far less representative of how the channel operates today.

Is CTV really just a branding channel?

Treating CTV as ‘TV’ has kept it anchored in the awareness bucket for too long. Much of today’s inventory is delivered through app-based environments that already support interaction and commerce.

That changes how the channel should be planned because CTV exposure does not simply influence behaviour elsewhere. In many cases, it already sits within shoppable, addressable digital contexts where viewers can act immediately, depending on the screen they are using.

This is why CTV increasingly behaves as a connective layer rather than a one-off broadcast moment. Exposure on the TV screen can be reinforced through sequential messaging on mobile or web, while app links allow brands to move audiences from awareness towards action without losing momentum.

Can you run CTV cost-effectively?

According to the IAB, the average household now watches programming across more than seven apps. Content rights and licensing arrangements encourage viewers to move between platforms daily, creating a complex path for buyers to follow.

But that breadth of supply also creates genuine competition for ad spend. In practice, it lowers prices and opens TV-scale environments to brands that could never afford traditional linear campaigns. Micro-campaigns, targeted at specific audiences rather than broad demographics, are now viable on multiple screens throughout the house.

Formats are evolving too. Options such as Netflix’s Pause Ads, which appear only when an episode is paused, reduce both creative complexity and production cost. The emphasis shifts away from emotive storytelling at scale and towards showing the right message to the right person at the right moment.

How can CTV deliver precise reach and frequency?

Fragmentation becomes a problem when buyers cannot recognise the same person across platforms. Without some sort of connective layer, duplication and inflated frequency quickly follow.

This is where identity resolution changes the equation. When disparate signals can be tied back to real people, buyers can control reach and frequency across platforms, suppress existing customers, and focus spend on audiences most likely to respond.

Just as importantly, exposure can be linked to outcomes rather than inferred impact. One of the biggest unresolved doubts in CTV is whether results are genuinely incremental or simply correlated with high-intent audiences who would have converted anyway.

Retail media partnerships show incrementality in action. At Currys, brands integrating targeted CTV alongside display activity saw conversions increase by 46% and in-store sales rise by 20%. That uplift was proven through identity-led, closed-loop measurement, directly connecting viewing to purchase behaviour.

Read more about our work with Currys

If you’re looking for a second opinion on CTV in 2026

CTV marks a departure from legacy TV planning cycles oriented around age-based buying, programme adjacency and blunt demographic assumptions. When buyers can recognise people across platforms, CTV can be planned and optimised alongside display, video and retail media using the same rules.

Epsilon works with brands and retailers to connect CTV into a wider digital system, anchored in person-level identity resolution and closed-loop measurement. That means fewer assumptions, less duplication and a clearer view of what is genuinely driving growth.

IDC MarketScape’s 2025 Worldwide Connected TV Advertising Platforms assessment named Epsilon a Leader for its unified, cross-channel approach.

If you want a fast, informed second opinion on where to place bets next year, we are always open to a conversation.