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OTT companies do earn ad dollars outside of CTV. Subscription OTT services, for instance, will earn $2.48 billion in ad revenues on mobile or other devices in 2026. But their bread and butter will remain CTV, where they will generate 84.7% of their ad sales in 2026, for a total of $16.23 billion across devices. CTV also serves ads for a small but rapidly growing part of retail media ad sales.

Precision audience targeting is the top CTV/Over-the-top (OTT) advertising benefit for advertisers (39%), according to an April 2024 Advertiser Perceptions and Premion study. Meanwhile, streamers will continue to claim a significant stake in live sports.

Retail media networks (RMNs) are expanding beyond retailers' websites and apps, pushing into connected TV (CTV) and in-store displays. As the industry matures, experts predict 2025 will be marked by significant growth in these off-site channels, with new technologies and partnerships reshaping how brands reach consumers throughout their shopping journey.

Catch up on the big events and trends shaping how advertisers measure linear and connected TV advertising.

Early adopters include Dropout, the comedy subscription service born from CollegeHumor, which relies on Vimeo鈥檚 OTT infrastructure for recurring revenue. The launch comes as Vimeo plans to invest up to $30 million in AI and enterprise product development in 2025, following a profitable 2024 and $417 million in annual revenues.

Thirty-nine percent of CTV/OTT advertisers cited transparency on where ads were running as one of their biggest challenges in CTV/OTT marketing, according to an April 2024 Advertiser Perceptions and Premion study. As more brands move their ad dollars over to CTV, our analyst Ross Benes calls overexposure 鈥渢he biggest bugaboo in streaming.鈥�. Finding your audience and keeping it.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss what the verdict is on Netflix's sports streaming experimentation and how small and mid-sized advertisers are spending more on CTV ads. Tune in to the conversation with Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Senior Analyst Ross Benes and Vice President Paul Verna. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

Only active TV watchers and active sub OTT viewers will spend more time with their selected media than digital audio listeners. And active radio listeners will still spend nearly as much time with their radios as gamers do with their games.

CTV has become the primary gateway for popular OTT video streaming services, as well as a conduit for digital audio, gaming, and even accessing linear TV (via digital TV providers, formerly known as vMVPDs). This degree of success will mean limited topline CTV user growth going forward. Click here to view our full forecast for US CTV users. Almost everyone in the US lives in a CTV household.

Viewership continues to shift away from linear TV to OTT sources like Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Roku, AppleTV+, Disney+, and Crave (owned by Bell Media). Many of these services offer ad-supported tiers for less expensive viewing. There will be 22.0 million adult CTV viewers in Canada this year, due to greater penetration of smart TVs. CTV is eating into traditional TV ad spending.

Nielsen is sunsetting its legacy panel-only measurement this year. What do advertisers need to know as they prepare to transact on big data-based metrics at scale?

The news: Advertisers are increasing investment in up-and-coming digital advertising channels as the shift away from traditional continues, per a DoubleVerify study. Social media maintains the highest level of investment among North American marketers. Seventy-nine percent are already investing, while 19% have plans to. Our take: High-performing traditional ad formats are being overlooked because they鈥檙e harder to measure鈥攂ut optimizing for attribution over outcomes could come at a cost.

In 2024, a perfect storm of technology, business, and consumer behavior trends will conspire to intensify the challenges of protecting brands on digital media.

As streaming subscription prices increase, viewers are becoming more amendable to ad-supported tiers.

Peacock is joining Prime Video鈥檚 ecosystem, giving viewers access to the service as an add-on with Prime subscriptions, per an Amazon announcement. The ad-free version of Comcast鈥檚 streaming platform will cost the same on Prime Video as it would individually. Peacock joins the likes of Paramount+, Apple TV+, and HBO Max in becoming part of Prime鈥檚 ecosystem. Peacock鈥檚 integration into Prime Video turns a mid-tier streamer struggling with profitability into part of a premium bundle, giving advertisers access to a larger, more engaged audience part of Amazon鈥檚 high-value ecosystem.

As connected TV takes center stage in advertising, brands are turning to creative strategies that capture attention and maintain audience engagement. Strong branding and frequent updates to campaigns are key to staying ahead in the competitive streaming space.

In 2025, digital advertising will be shaped by connected (CTV) consolidation, stricter data privacy measures, and AI-driven marketing. CTV growth may spark mergers, while privacy regulations push brands to rely on first-party data. AI will continue to enhance campaign performance and creativity, transforming how marketers engage audiences.

Don鈥檛 count Roku out: The CTV provider hit 90 million US households, cementing its leadership even as the sector undergoes major consolidation.

The news: YouTube has made an official inquiry about purchasing the rights to future Academy Awards ceremonies in its latest live events push, per Bloomberg. The move comes after viewership increased slightly for the most recent Oscars ceremony, driven by simultaneous airing on ABC and Hulu. Our take: Rather than competing head-on with broadcast, YouTube can position itself as a complementary streaming partner that extends the Oscars鈥� reach by highlighting shifting viewership trends that capture audiences broadcast alone struggles to reach and its edge in premium video advertising.