Connected TV (CTV) advertising spans ads delivered through internet-connected televisions, streaming devices, smart-TV apps and related streaming services. The statistics below separate U.S. spend estimates, audience measurement, advertiser surveys and company-specific studies because these measures are not interchangeable.
Key Connected TV Advertising Statistics
The most broadly useful connected TV advertising figures include:
- In 2023, U.S. CTV ad spend was estimated at $20.3 billion.
- In 2024, U.S. CTV ad spend was estimated at $23.6 billion, according to IAB and Guideline.
- For 2025, U.S. CTV ad spend was forecast at $26.6 billion.
- In 2024, CTV ad spend was estimated to grow 16% year over year in the United States.
- In 2024, digital video was forecast to represent 52% of U.S. TV/video ad spend, compared with 48% for linear TV.
- From May 2023 onward, streaming programming accounted for more than 36% of U.S. TV usage.
- In 2023, TV-connected devices reached 75% of U.S. people aged 2 and older.
- In 2023, smart-TV penetration reached 70.6% of U.S. TV homes.
- In March 2025, streaming represented 43.8% of overall U.S. TV time.
- In a 2024 survey of major U.S. advertisers spending at least $50 million annually on media, 69% considered CTV a must-buy.
- In 2024, 51% of surveyed buyers had bought ads on FAST services, compared with 44% a year earlier.
- In 2024, 21% of streaming video ads were estimated to be programmatic.
- In a 2024 Comcast/Cint consumer survey, over 87% of viewers preferred watching streaming content on a TV screen.
- In a 2024 survey, 56% of advertisers said better measurement, attribution or optimization would increase their video-ad spend.
- In 2024, 86% of advertisers ranked specific reach and frequency goals among their top three success factors.
- In 2024, 82% of advertisers rated targeting capabilities important or very important when planning video campaigns.
- In a 2024 buyer survey, 80% considered ad loads when planning premium-video campaigns.
Contents
- Connected TV advertising spend and market growth
- CTV viewing reach and audience adoption
- CTV buying, programmatic and addressable advertising
- FAST, streaming formats and live-TV engagement
- CTV campaign goals, measurement and outcomes
- CTV ad experience, targeting and inventory challenges
Connected TV Advertising Spend and Market Growth
The clearest market-size figures in the supplied research are U.S.-specific estimates from IAB and Guideline. They concern CTV advertising directly, while the broader digital-video figures also include social video and online video.
| Measure | Period | Figure | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| CTV ad spend | 2023 | $20.3 billion | U.S. CTV; estimate |
| CTV ad spend | 2024 | $23.6 billion | U.S. CTV; estimate |
| CTV ad spend | 2025 | $26.6 billion | U.S. CTV; forecast |
| CTV year-over-year growth | 2024 | 16% | U.S.; estimate |
Source: IAB and Guideline, “Digital Video Is Set to Capture Nearly 60% of All TV/Video Ad Spend in 2025, CTV Rebounds to Double-Digit Growth in 2024”. The 2025 figure is a forecast, not realized spend.
Broader digital-video spending provides context but should not be treated as CTV-only:
- IAB’s 2024 Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report estimated U.S. digital-video ad spend at $54.0 billion in 2023 and forecast $62.9 billion in 2024.
- Digital-video ad spend grew 15% in 2023 and was forecast to grow 16% in 2024 in the United States; these figures include CTV, social video and online video.
- Digital video was forecast to take 52% of total U.S. TV/video ad spend in 2024, versus 48% for linear TV.
- By category, 2024 U.S. digital-video spending was estimated at $12.6 billion for CPG, $7.4 billion for retail and $5.9 billion for automotive; each is a digital-video total, not CTV alone.
CTV Viewing Reach and Audience Adoption
Nielsen’s measures describe usage and reach rather than advertising impressions. Connected-device content includes more than ad-supported CTV, so audience adoption should not be read as an equivalent measure of monetized inventory.
- From May 2023 onward, streaming programming represented more than 36% of total U.S. TV usage.
- U.S. adults aged 18 and older increased connected-device viewing time by more than 20% in the 2022–2023 comparison.
- In 2023, connected-device content represented just under 40% of total TV usage among U.S. adults aged 18 and older.
- CTV usage accounted for 80.2% among U.S. viewers aged 12–17, 73.6% among viewers aged 21–34, and 56.8% among viewers aged 25–54 in 2023.
- TV-connected devices reached 75% of U.S. people aged 2 and older in 2023, up from 58% at the start of 2020.
- Smart-TV penetration was 70.6% of U.S. TV homes in 2023.
- Eleven streaming services individually exceeded 1% of total U.S. TV usage in Nielsen’s November 2023 Gauge.
The more recent Nielsen trend also shows streaming’s growing share of television time:
- Streaming represented 43.8% of overall U.S. TV time in March 2025, an increase of 10 percentage points over the two years since March 2023.
- In Nielsen’s 2025 Ad Supported Gauge, 72.4% of U.S. viewers’ television time was ad-supported, and streaming represented 42.4% of ad-supported U.S. television viewing.
- Globally, 56% of marketers planned to increase OTT/CTV spending in 2025, up from 53% planning an increase in 2024; these are intentions from Nielsen’s Annual Marketing Report, not realized spending.
Source: Nielsen, “Connected TV is transforming advertising”. The Ad Supported Gauge is not CTV-only.
CTV Buying, Programmatic and Addressable Advertising
Advertiser surveys show that CTV is increasingly treated as a planned channel, while buying incidence varies by service type. The figures below describe surveyed buyers rather than the complete advertising market.
| Buying or planning measure | Period | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Large advertisers calling CTV a must-buy | 2024 | 69% |
| FAST-service ad buyers | 2024 | 51%, versus 44% a year earlier |
| Virtual MVPD ad buyers | 2024 | 55% |
| Streaming-platform ad buyers | 2024 | 53% |
| Advertisers calling addressable TV a must-buy | 2024 | 53% |
The large-advertiser result covers U.S. advertisers with at least $50 million in annual media spend and a survey sample of 200. Source: IAB, “2024 Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report”; the addressable-TV result comes from Comcast Advertising’s 2024 report.
Comcast and FreeWheel marketplace measures add detail about targeting and automated buying:
- Streaming-campaign ad views using audience targeting grew 39% year over year in 2024 in Comcast Advertising data.
- Programmatic ad views increased 15% year over year in 2024 in the Comcast/FreeWheel marketplace.
- Independent programmatic demand grew 24% year over year in the U.S. in 2024.
- Programmatic ads represented 21% of streaming video ads in the cited 2024 industry estimate from Comcast, which cites eMarketer/FreeWheel rather than a direct census.
- 65% of advertisers cited supply-path optimization as a priority in TV ad buying in a 2023 survey cited in Comcast’s 2024 report.
FAST, Streaming Formats and Live-TV Engagement
FAST refers to free, ad-supported streaming television. Consumer preference, service awareness and program engagement are different measures, and the Comcast findings are survey or study results rather than universal audience estimates.
- More than 87% of viewers preferred watching streaming content on a TV screen across paid TV, paid streaming and free streaming in a 2024 Comcast/Cint consumer survey of 1,700 people.
- 93% of consumers had heard of at least one major FAST service and reported liking it for content and experience; the result combines awareness and reported liking.
- Top sports programs generated 31% higher visual attention than the average program in a June 2024 FreeWheel Viewer Experience Lab study.
- Live special events generated 22% longer tune-in time than other programs in that study.
- Only 28% of viewers said they could easily search for and find something to watch, while 63% said they spent at least six minutes searching for new content.
Source: Comcast Advertising, “The 2024 Comcast Advertising Report”. The search findings are self-reported, and the attention and tune-in results are study-specific rather than sales outcomes.
CTV Campaign Goals, Measurement and Outcomes
Advertisers describe success through a combination of audience delivery and business outcomes. Survey rankings indicate stated priorities, not measured performance from every campaign.
- 56% of advertisers said they would increase video-ad spend with better measurement, attribution or optimization.
- 86% ranked delivering specific reach and frequency goals among their top three success factors.
- 76% ranked overall return on ad spend among their top three success factors.
- 73% ranked attributed conversions among their top three success factors.
- 47% cited scale within target audience segments as a reach-maximization challenge.
- 41% cited the cost of adding incremental viewers as a reach challenge; this is a stated challenge, not a CPM benchmark.
Source: Comcast Advertising, “The 2024 Comcast Advertising Report”.
Nielsen’s broader media-planning analysis is not CTV-only, but it illustrates why allocation and measurement remain central:
- In a 2022 study of 150,000 observations and client media plans, 50% of analyzed plans were underinvested in critical channels and shortchanged ROI by 50%.
Source: Nielsen, “The 2024–25 Upfronts/NewFronts Guide”. This is a Nielsen Predictive ROI database analysis cited in the later guide, not an independent CTV outcome measure.
CTV Ad Experience, Targeting and Inventory Challenges
Ad quality depends on delivery as well as audience selection. Comcast’s premium-video research covers broader video contexts in several places, so the scope is retained below.
- 80% of buyers considered ad loads when planning premium-video campaigns.
- Nearly 80% of respondents said latency or slow, buffering ads bothered them moderately or a lot.
- Ad breaks without latency produced an 8% higher program-quality rating, a 7% higher ad-quality rating and a 6% higher brand-quality rating than breaks with latency in a 2024 Viewer Experience Lab study.
- 82% of advertisers rated targeting capabilities important or very important when planning video campaigns.
- 85% of buyers said the publisher of content was important or very important when buying premium-video inventory.
- 69% of advertisers were already using first-party data for media campaigns, while 21% planned to begin within 12 months.
- 67% were already using contextual advertising, while 22% planned to begin within 12 months.
Source: Comcast Advertising, “The 2024 Comcast Advertising Report”. Current-use and planned-use categories should not be added together as unique advertisers.
International data shows that CTV’s role varies by market and is often reported alongside broader video advertising:
- In Australia, 92% of respondents said digital-video advertising across mobile, desktop and CTV was a significant or regular part of marketing activity in 2024.
- 55% of Australian respondents said CTV was a significant part of advertising activity, and 66% of Australian agencies said CTV played a major role in extending linear-TV campaign reach.
- Australian video advertising revenue reached A$3.78 billion in 2023 and grew 175% over the five years to 2023; both figures cover all video advertising, not CTV alone.
Source: IAB Australia, “Marketers Embrace Full Funnel Video Advertising Strategies”. These agency-survey and revenue measures are not directly comparable with the U.S. CTV spend estimates.