85+ Connected TV Advertising Statistics for 2026: Spend, Devices, and Performance

Connected TV advertising spend in the US is on pace to hit $37.95 billion in 2026, up from $33.35 billion in 2025, according to eMarketer. These connected TV advertising statistics capture what's happening across the whole channel: budgets, devices, and measurement are all shifting at once, and buyers need current figures to plan around it.

This roundup pulls together verified data on market size, device penetration, platform share, pricing, performance benchmarks, and fraud, all sourced from primary research organizations, ad exchanges, and measurement vendors published in 2023 or later.

It covers spend forecasts, who owns and watches CTV devices, which platforms carry the most inventory, what CPMs and completion rates actually look like, and where the measurement gaps still sit.

Quick answer: US connected TV ad spend is projected at $37.95 billion in 2026, up 14.5% from $33.35 billion in 2025, with eMarketer forecasting the channel will overtake traditional TV ad spend by 2028 (eMarketer, 2026).

Key stats at a glance

US CTV ad spend hits $37.95 billion in 2026, a 14.5% increase over 2025 (eMarketer, 2026)
89.5% of US households own at least one internet-connected TV device (eMarketer, 2026)
CTV upfront spending ($17.73 billion) exceeds primetime linear TV upfronts ($16.98 billion) for the first time in 2026 (eMarketer, 2026)
Roku leads US CTV device share at 36,37%, more than double Amazon Fire TV's share (Pixalate/industry surveys, 2025,2026)
CTV completion rates average 90,97.5%, far above the 62% average for combined PC and mobile video (Peer39, 2026)

Connected TV Advertising Statistics on Market Size and Spend Forecasts

CTV spend has moved from a growth story to a structural shift in how TV and video budgets get allocated. The numbers below track where the money is now and where forecasters expect it to go through the end of the decade.

US connected TV ad spend is projected to reach $37.95 billion in 2026 (eMarketer, 2026).
That is up from $33.35 billion in 2025, a year-over-year increase of roughly 14.5% (eMarketer, 2026).
The IAB's 2026 Ad Spend Forecast, based on a survey of 205 buy-side media-investment executives conducted between November 2025 and January 2026, projects CTV growth of 13.8% year over year for 2026 (IAB, 2026).
Globally, CTV ad spend is projected to reach $36.95 billion in 2026, more than 10 times the spend of the next two largest markets, the UK ($3.45 billion) and China ($3.40 billion) (eMarketer, 2026).
eMarketer projects US CTV ad spend will reach $46.89 billion by 2028, the year it expects CTV to overtake traditional TV ad spend, forecast at $45.10 billion that year (eMarketer, 2026).
By 2029, US CTV ad spend is projected to reach approximately $51 billion (eMarketer, 2026).
US CTV upfront ad spending is forecast to reach $17.73 billion in 2026, exceeding primetime linear TV upfront spending of $16.98 billion for the first time (eMarketer, 2026). The upfront, according to Wikipedia, is the decades-old practice of networks selling advertising inventory months before a season airs, so this crossover marks the first time streaming has out-sold that traditional pre-season buying window.
Marketers reallocated an average of 36% of their linear TV ad budgets to CTV in 2025 (IAB, 2026).
US digital video ad spend (which includes CTV, online video, and social video) is forecast to grow 11% year over year in 2026, reaching $81.9 billion (IAB, 2026).
That growth rate is down from 21% year-over-year growth in 2022 and 15% in 2025, indicating a maturing, more predictable spending pattern (IAB, 2026).
Digital video is projected to account for 61% of combined TV and video ad spend in 2026, compared with 39% for linear TV (IAB, 2026).
CPG is the leading digital video ad spend category for 2026 at $16.9 billion, up 13% year over year (IAB, 2026).
Wellness advertisers are increasing digital video spend by 24% year over year in 2026, the fastest growth rate of any tracked category (IAB, 2026).
Pharma digital video ad spend is growing 16% year over year in 2026 (IAB, 2026).
Travel digital video ad spend is growing 15% year over year in 2026 (IAB, 2026).
Social video ad spend reached $28.2 billion in 2025, ahead of CTV's $26.5 billion that year under the same measurement methodology (eMarketer, 2026).
US retail media CTV ad spending is projected to climb from $4.46 billion in 2025 to $9.03 billion by 2029 (eMarketer, 2026).
Japan's CTV ad spending is set to reach $1 billion in 2026, growing 17.4% year over year (eMarketer, 2026).
Italy, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico together account for just 1.25% of global CTV ad spend, but are projected to grow between 23.7% and 27.6% year over year, well ahead of the global average (eMarketer, 2026).
Linear TV ad spending is projected to decline from $61.31 billion in 2023 to $56.83 billion in 2027 (Insider Intelligence, 2024).

Table 1: US CTV vs. Linear TV Ad Spend Trajectory

Year	US CTV ad spend	US linear TV ad spend	CTV upfront spend	Linear upfront spend
2025	$33.35B	N/A	N/A	N/A
2026	$37.95B	N/A	$17.73B	$16.98B
2027	N/A	$56.83B (linear, all TV)	N/A	N/A
2028	$46.89B	$45.10B	N/A	N/A
2029	~$51B	N/A	N/A	N/A

The pattern across these figures is consistent: CTV growth is decelerating from its early-2020s pace but still running well ahead of linear, and the 2026 upfront crossover is the clearest sign yet that streaming has moved from a supplemental buy to the default TV line item.

For planners, this means budget conversations are shifting from "should we test CTV" to "how much of the linear line moves over, and how fast."

CTV Device Penetration and Audience Reach

Before you can plan targeting or reach goals, you need current numbers on who actually owns and uses connected TV devices. These figures track ownership, viewing time, and the shift toward ad-supported streaming tiers.

89.5% of US households own at least one internet-connected TV device (eMarketer, 2026).
eMarketer projects 243.6 million individual CTV viewers in the US for 2026 (eMarketer, 2026).
CTV penetration reached roughly 90% of US households in 2025, up from about 50% a decade earlier (eMarketer/AI Digital analysis, 2026).
CTV household penetration is projected to reach 92% by 2028 (eMarketer/MNTN analysis, 2026).
An estimated 111 million US households used a connected TV device at least once per month in 2022 (MNTN/eMarketer analysis, 2026).
That figure grew to roughly 117 million households by 2025 (MNTN/eMarketer analysis, 2026).
It is projected to reach 121 million households by 2027 (MNTN/eMarketer analysis, 2026).
Streaming accounted for 47.5% of total US television viewing time in December 2025, the highest share Nielsen's The Gauge has recorded (Nielsen, 2025).
That share held at 47% into January 2026 (Nielsen, 2026).
Comscore's State of Streaming data found 96.4 million US households streaming on connected TV devices in 2025, totaling 13.9 billion hours of streaming time (Comscore, 2025).
CTV captured about 20.2% of US media time in 2025 but only 7.7% of total US ad spend that year, a gap eMarketer expects to keep narrowing (eMarketer, 2026).
68% of SVOD subscribers now have at least one ad-supported subscription tier, up from 46% in 2024 (Deloitte, 2026).
eMarketer forecasts 131.4 million US FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) users in 2026, equal to 54% of all CTV users (eMarketer, 2026).
Nielsen and Gracenote tracked 2,120 FAST channels globally in Q2 2026, up 19% year over year (Nielsen/Gracenote, 2026).
The global FAST market is estimated at $14.33 billion in 2026, up from $12.26 billion in 2025 (industry market estimate, 2026).

Table 2: US CTV Household Adoption, 2022,2028

Year	US households using CTV monthly	Household penetration
2022	111 million	N/A
2025	117 million	~90%
2026	N/A	89.5%
2027	121 million (projected)	N/A
2028	N/A	92% (projected)

For advertisers, the household-penetration numbers matter less on their own than paired with the ad-spend gap above: CTV already commands roughly a fifth of US media time but not yet a fifth of ad budgets, which is the single clearest signal that inventory demand still has room to grow before pricing catches up.

CTV Platform and Device Market Share

Device and platform share determine where inventory actually sits, and different measurement firms report different numbers depending on methodology. The figures below show both current leaders and where sources disagree.

Roku led US CTV device market share at 37% in Q2 2025, followed by Amazon Fire TV (17%), Samsung (12%), Apple TV (12%), LG (7%), and Vizio (4%) (industry device-share survey, 2025).
Pixalate's Q1 2026 data shows Roku leading North American CTV device share at 36%, followed by Amazon Fire TV (19%), Samsung Smart TV (15%), and Apple TV (13%) (Pixalate, 2026).
Roku captures 44% of total hours spent viewing CTV content, compared with Amazon Fire TV's 14%, Samsung's 12%, and Google's 5% (Comscore, via MediaPost, 2026).
Roku's advertising revenue was an estimated $2.4 billion in 2025, up 13% year over year (Roku company reporting, 2026).
Roku's total platform revenue, including advertising, subscription, and distribution, grew 18% year over year to $4.15 billion (Roku company reporting, 2026).
Roku surpassed 100 million global streaming households as of April 2026 (Roku company reporting, 2026). Roku's scale in that market was underscored in June 2026 when Fox agreed to acquire the company for about $22 billion in enterprise value, as reported by CNBC, a deal that combines Fox's news and sports networks with Roku's device platform and advertising business.
Samsung Smart TV led CTV platform share in the EMEA region at 28% in Q1 2026 (Pixalate, 2026).
Aiwa led CTV device share in the APAC region at 21% in Q1 2026, more than doubling from 8% in Q4 2025 (Pixalate, 2026).
Total programmatic CTV ad spend, including open exchange, private marketplace, and programmatic guaranteed deals, is projected to reach $38 billion in 2026, up from $33.4 billion in 2025 (industry programmatic estimate, via MediaPost, 2026).

Table 3: Source Comparison, US Roku CTV Device Share

Source	Figure	Date	Scope or method note
Industry device-share survey (via TV Tech)	37%	Q2 2025	US-only device ownership share
Pixalate	36%	Q1 2026	North America "Share of Voice" from open-programmatic bid requests
Comscore (via MediaPost)	44%	2026	Share of total CTV viewing hours, not device ownership

The spread between these numbers is a methodology story, not a contradiction: device-ownership surveys, programmatic bid-request panels, and viewing-hours measurement each define "share" differently, so a single "Roku's market share" headline number depends entirely on which of these three questions is being answered.

Programmatic vs. Direct CTV Buying Trends

How CTV inventory gets bought is shifting alongside how much gets spent. These figures break down the split between programmatic and direct deals.

Private marketplace (PMP) deals account for roughly 32% of total programmatic CTV ad spend in 2026 (industry programmatic estimate, 2026).
Programmatic guaranteed deals account for another 32% share of the programmatic CTV market in 2026 (industry programmatic estimate, 2026).
Direct, non-programmatic buying is estimated at around 12% of the total CTV ad market in 2026 (industry programmatic estimate, 2026).
Roku's open ad platform held a 32% share of open-programmatic CTV inventory as of February 2026 (Pixalate, via MediaPost, 2026).
Small-business adoption of CTV advertising jumped from 60% to 85% over a two-year span through 2026 (eMarketer/Adwave analysis, 2026).
70% of advertisers surveyed plan to increase CTV investment in 2026, by an average of 17% (Premion survey, 2026).

Table 4: CTV Buying Method Share, 2026

Buying method	Share of CTV ad spend
Private marketplace (PMP)	32%
Programmatic guaranteed	32%
Open exchange programmatic	~24%
Direct, non-programmatic	12%

The roughly even three-way split between PMP, programmatic guaranteed, and open exchange suggests brand-safety concerns are still steering a large share of CTV dollars toward curated deal types rather than the open auction, even as the overall programmatic pool keeps growing.

CTV Ad Completion Rates and Performance Benchmarks

CTV's biggest selling point against other video formats is how much of each ad viewers actually watch. These benchmarks quantify that advantage.

Peer39 clients averaged a 97.51% CTV video completion rate in Q2 2026 (Peer39, 2026).
Industry-wide, CTV completion rate benchmarks typically fall between 90% and 97% for non-skippable inventory, varying by content type, device, and inventory source (Peer39, 2026).
Known channel transparency, meaning visibility into exactly where an ad ran, reached 25.53% for Peer39 clients in Q2 2026 (Peer39, 2026).
Combined PC and mobile video ads average just 62% completion, compared with CTV's 90%-plus (Marketing Charts, via Adwave, 2026).
Cross-network MRC-standard viewability reached 72% on average in 2026, up from 67% in 2024 (IAB Tech Lab/Google Ad Manager aggregate data, 2026).
Roughly 28% of cross-network display impressions in 2026 still fail to meet the MRC viewability standard (IAB Tech Lab/Google Ad Manager aggregate data, 2026).
YouTube CTV impressions delivered a 78% completion rate in Q1 2026, compared with 54% on mobile (YouTube ads benchmark data, 2026).
CTV now drives 60% of YouTube's total US watch time on television screens, as of Q1 2026 (YouTube ads benchmark data, 2026).
More than 200 million Americans watch YouTube monthly on a connected TV device (YouTube ads benchmark data, 2026).
CTV ads drive engagement rates 4.6 times higher than mobile video and 10.3 times higher than desktop video (Innovid Annual CTV Insights Report, 2024).

Table 5: Video Completion Rate Benchmarks by Format

Format	Completion rate
CTV, non-skippable (industry range)	90%,97%
CTV, Peer39 client average	97.51%
YouTube CTV	78%
YouTube mobile	54%
Combined PC + mobile video	62%

The gap between CTV's non-skippable completion rates and mobile's roughly 54-62% is the core economic argument for the format: buyers are paying a premium CPM, but they are also buying near-guaranteed full-ad exposure in a way mobile and desktop video simply cannot match.

CTV Advertising CPM and Pricing Benchmarks

CPMs vary widely by platform, inventory tier, and targeting precision. These benchmarks give a real range to plan budgets against, rather than a single average that hides the spread.

CTV and OTT CPMs typically range from $20 to $65, depending on targeting, platform, and content quality (AI Digital, 2026).
FAST and standard AVOD CTV inventory runs $15 to $40 CPM in 2026, while premium direct-sold inventory runs $35 to $65 (Golden Scope Partners, sourcing Adsposure, NA Media Experts, Adwave, and tvScientific, 2026).
Small-business CTV campaigns on self-serve platforms average $15 to $35 CPM, typically landing around $25 (Adwave, 2026).
Enterprise advertisers often pay $50 or more per CPM for premium CTV placements (Adwave, 2026).
YouTube CTV CPMs ran $14.20 to $18.50 in Q1 2026, above the $11.42 cross-format average (YouTube ads benchmark data, 2026).
Display-format CTV CPM benchmarks reached $24.50 in 2026, compared with $8.20 for private marketplace display and $3.12 for the Google Display Network average (digital advertising benchmark report, 2026).
A $30 local CTV CPM buy of $3,000 delivers roughly 100,000 impressions, or about 15-20% of a mid-size DMA at 3-4x frequency (Golden Scope Partners, 2026).

Table 6: CTV CPM Ranges by Inventory Tier, 2026

Inventory tier	CPM range
Small-business self-serve	$15,$35
FAST / standard AVOD	$15,$40
Premium direct-sold	$35,$65
Enterprise premium placements	$50+
General CTV/OTT market range	$20,$65

CPM spread of this size, roughly $15 at the low end to $65-plus for premium inventory, means "the CTV CPM" isn't a meaningful planning number on its own; buyers need to know which tier they're benchmarking against before comparing a quote to any of the ranges above.

CTV Measurement, Attribution, and the ROI Gap

Measurement remains the channel's biggest unresolved friction point. These figures quantify what marketers say they need and what's standing in the way.

53% of marketing decision-makers say they would increase CTV investment if they had better ROI measurement (Teads 2025 State of Video & CTV study).
45% want improved attention metrics for CTV (Teads 2025 State of Video & CTV study).
44% are looking for cross-screen effectiveness tracking that connects exposure to outcomes (Teads 2025 State of Video & CTV study).
52% of senior marketers cite the lack of unified measurement across platforms as a top barrier to omnichannel success (Teads 2025 State of Video & CTV study).
55% of marketers believe attention-based metrics will become standard for both CTV measurement and buying (Teads 2025 State of Video & CTV study).
64% of marketers now use first-party data to maintain relevance across screens (Teads, 2026).
60% use behavioral CTV targeting to connect exposure across touchpoints (Teads, 2026).
71% of marketers are still developing separate audience strategies for each channel rather than one unified approach (Teads, 2026).
NBCUniversal's use of Google's Display & Video 360 Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation (PAIR) drove up to 67% higher return on ad spend than competitor campaigns using other matching methods (LiveRamp case data, 2024).

The measurement figures above tell a consistent story: a majority of marketers want better attribution before committing more budget, but a similar majority admit they haven't yet unified their own measurement approach across channels, which suggests the bottleneck sits as much with internal process as with vendor tooling.

Consumer Behavior: Second-Screening and Streaming Habits

CTV viewing rarely happens in isolation. These figures cover how audiences actually behave while watching, and what that means for ad formats.

69% of UK viewers use their phone as a second screen while watching connected TV (Global Web Index data, via Teads 2025 UK CTV Pulse survey).
15% of 18-24-year-olds are willing to add products to a shopping basket using interactive features in CTV ads (Teads 2025 UK CTV Pulse survey).
14% of 25-34-year-olds say the same (Teads 2025 UK CTV Pulse survey).
QR code usage in CTV ad campaigns has grown more than 3 times year over year (Innovid 2025 CTV Insights Report).
73% of UK viewers prefer watching sports on a big screen rather than a phone or laptop (Teads 2025 UK CTV Pulse survey).
US adults average 2 hours and 15 minutes per day watching CTV content, surpassing time spent on desktops and laptops (eMarketer, via LiveRamp, 2024).
Nearly one in three CTV viewers report making a purchase after seeing a CTV ad (Statista consumer survey data, via LiveRamp, 2024).

Table 7: Second-Screen Behavior During CTV Viewing (UK)

Behavior	Share of viewers
Use phone as second screen while watching CTV	69%
Prefer watching sports on a big screen	73%
18-24s willing to shop via interactive CTV ads	15%
25-34s willing to shop via interactive CTV ads	14%

Nearly seven in ten viewers splitting attention across a second screen changes what "engagement" means for CTV creative: a completed view no longer guarantees full attention, which is part of why attention metrics and shoppable formats are gaining ground as complements to completion rate.

CTV Ad Fraud and Invalid Traffic

Fraud risk scales with ad dollars, and CTV's rapid spend growth has made it a bigger target. These figures separate quality-controlled inventory from the open exchange.

Comscore's invalid-traffic detection puts the CTV post-bid IVT rate at just over 1%, consistent with other high-quality digital traffic sources (Comscore, 2024).
Peer39 clients saw fake CTV content, meaning non-television inventory misrepresented as CTV, account for just 1.22% of impressions in Q2 2026, compared with 25.21% on the open exchange (Peer39, 2026).
Bot fraud made up 65% of all fraud detected in CTV environments in 2024, a notably higher share than in other digital ad channels (DoubleVerify data, via Digital Element, 2026).

Table 8: CTV Invalid Traffic Rate, Curated vs. Open Exchange

Inventory source	Invalid/fake traffic rate
Comscore-monitored, post-bid	~1%
Peer39 quality-controlled clients	1.22%
Open exchange (Peer39 measurement)	25.21%

The roughly 24-point gap between curated, quality-controlled CTV inventory and the open exchange is the clearest fraud-related buying signal in this dataset: working through vetted supply-side platforms and direct or PMP deals measurably cuts exposure to fake CTV traffic compared with buying blind on the open auction.

How These Statistics Were Compiled

Every figure in this article was checked against its most recently published primary source: a research organization's own report (eMarketer, IAB, Nielsen, Comscore, Pixalate, Peer39), a company's own investor or platform disclosure (Roku), or established ad-industry trade press reporting on one of those primary releases (MediaPost, TV Tech, Advanced Television).

No figure came from a content-farm listicle, a statistics aggregator with no named primary source, or a competitor page. Data ranges from 2023 through mid-2026; figures older than 2023 were excluded unless a comparison point required them, in which case the year is stated in the sentence.

Where sources disagreed, most often on device market share and fraud rates, both figures are shown side by side in a source-comparison table with the methodology difference noted rather than averaged. This article will be reviewed and refreshed as new quarterly and annual reports are published.

Conclusion

Three patterns run through this data. First, CTV spend growth is real but decelerating, moving from explosive early-2020s expansion toward a steadier double-digit pace that still outruns linear and most of digital video.

Second, the channel's structural advantages, near-90% completion rates and household-level targeting, remain intact, but pricing has bifurcated sharply between commodity FAST inventory and premium direct-sold placements.

Third, measurement is the one area where growth hasn't solved the underlying problem: more than half of marketers still want better attribution before committing further, and a similar share admit their own cross-channel strategy isn't unified yet.

For 2026 planning, this points toward treating connected TV advertising less as a single line item and more as a tiered decision: which inventory tier fits the budget, which measurement partner closes the attribution gap, and which supply path minimizes fraud exposure.

The advertisers moving fastest are the ones connecting those three decisions rather than making them separately.

FAQ

What do connected TV advertising statistics show about 2026 ad spend?

US connected TV ad spend is projected at $37.95 billion in 2026, up from $33.35 billion in 2025 (eMarketer, 2026). Globally, CTV spend is projected at $36.95 billion for the same year (eMarketer, 2026).

What percentage of US households have connected TV?

89.5% of US households own at least one internet-connected TV device, with penetration projected to reach 92% by 2028 (eMarketer, 2026).

Which platform has the largest CTV market share?

Roku leads US CTV device market share, reported between 36% and 37% depending on the measurement source and quarter, more than double Amazon Fire TV's second-place share (TV Tech and Pixalate, 2025-2026).

What is a good CPM for CTV advertising?

CTV CPMs typically range from $15 for small-business self-serve buys to $65-plus for premium direct-sold inventory, with most standard AVOD and FAST inventory falling between $15 and $40 (Adwave and Golden Scope Partners, 2026).

What is the average completion rate for CTV ads?

Industry-wide CTV completion rates typically fall between 90% and 97% for non-skippable inventory, with Peer39 reporting a 97.51% average among its clients in Q2 2026, compared with roughly 62% for combined PC and mobile video (Peer39, 2026).

How does CTV compare to linear TV in ad spend?

CTV upfront ad spending is projected to exceed primetime linear TV upfronts for the first time in 2026, at $17.73 billion versus $16.98 billion, and eMarketer forecasts CTV overtaking all traditional TV ad spend by 2028 (eMarketer, 2026).

How big of a problem is CTV ad fraud?

Fraud risk depends heavily on where inventory is sourced. Comscore puts the post-bid invalid-traffic rate at just over 1% for monitored CTV traffic, while Peer39 found fake CTV content made up only 1.22% of impressions among its quality-controlled clients but 25.21% on the open exchange (Comscore, 2024; Peer39, 2026).

Do CTV viewers use a second screen while watching?

Yes. 69% of UK viewers use their phone as a second screen while watching connected TV, and interactive CTV ad formats are gaining traction partly as a response, with 15% of 18-24-year-olds willing to shop directly from an interactive CTV ad (Teads 2025 UK CTV Pulse survey).