Howdy, readers! I’m again within the author’s nook protecting the convergent TV promoting world and delivering at present’s CTV dispatch for AdExchanger after a stint at Magnite doing company communications. Going ahead, I’ll be sharing AdExchanger’s CTV publication with Affiliate Editor Victoria McNally, because the beat is simply too large to be a one-woman job.
Returning to the information desk after a yr away from CTV beat reporting appears like discovering a time capsule containing the trade’s core dilemmas, priorities and ache factors. It’s simple to really feel like I by no means left when a lot of the panorama is similar.
Right here’s my fast abstract of what I missed: The science of frequency capping nonetheless eludes the market, and measurement stays a large number as media sellers and commerce orgs proceed criticizing Nielsen.
However there may be one notable change. Imagine it or not, I keep in mind getting worthwhile pitches about CTV product and technique that didn’t point out AI. These days, AI appears deeply embedded into any headline or pitch value its salt. Particularly agentic AI.
Let’s dig deeper into what has and hasn’t modified in CTV Advert Land – and why.
Hitting the best frequency
One of many first articles I learn this month was about frequency capping. After checking the time stamp once more, I noticed the CTV advert trade is simply as stumped about frequency capping because it was a yr in the past. However to its credit score, the trade is ramping up efforts to handle the age-old frequency drawback.
At CES final week, Omnicom Media touted an expanded partnership with Amazon Adverts. The partnership will combine TV viewing information from Roku and viewers information from Acxiom alongside Amazon shopper insights inside its Omni intelligence platform. Translation: Extra information from each side of the acquisition funnel will hopefully assist determine frequency caps which might be helpful to enterprise targets with out bombarding viewers.
Talking of Amazon, the ecommerce big has a brand new pitch deck designed to woo patrons with closed-loop attribution due to an unmatched provide of customer information and TV viewing information. The push comes as entrepreneurs face intensifying stress to justify each media greenback.
Nonetheless, patrons aren’t completely bought on Amazon’s CTV providing. Some patrons really feel Amazon lacks in frequency capping capabilities, partly on account of reportedly restricted visibility into non-Amazon publishers. It’s ironic to see Amazon play good with company holdcos searching for interoperability whereas a scarcity of visibility past Amazon’s owned-and-operated platforms continues to frustrate patrons. Seems like being a walled backyard and being good at frequency capping are mutually unique.
Nonetheless, the shortage of TV measurement standardization definitely doesn’t assist. Measurement messiness and trade infighting intensified within the yr I used to be away from the reporter’s desk.
Final month, the Video Promoting Bureau (VAB) publicly criticized Nielsen’s endorsed Massive Knowledge + Panel providing. Regardless of incorporating extra granular information units as Nielsen expands past panel-only rankings, the mixed providing is unstable and inconsistent, in keeping with the VAB.
Naturally, Nielsen refutes the accusation. The VAB doesn’t know tips on how to correctly conduct a rankings evaluation, in keeping with Nielsen. (Ouch.) However the VAB isn’t the one one complaining. Nielsen made headlines in The Wall Avenue Journal in September after the NFL claimed the forex supplier underestimated audiences for the league’s video games.
Patrons and sellers don’t have time to attend for the yearslong measurement debate to settle, although. Within the meantime, they’re taking measures into their very own fingers by searching for out new information partnerships and AI capabilities to assist fill gaps of their understanding of consumption conduct and marketing campaign efficiency throughout platforms.
CTV 🤝 Agentic AI
Talking of AI, it has taken on a way more significant function in CTV promoting in comparison with only a yr in the past. Generative AI captivated the trade all through 2025, however, this yr, agentic AI is the highest buzzword, if bulletins timed to CES are something to go by.
NBCUniversal, for one, is testing agentic methods with indie company RPA, Newton Analysis and FreeWheel to automate campaigns throughout linear and streaming portfolios, together with stay sports activities. Additionally at CES, programmatic tech firms, together with Magnite, PubMatic, Yahoo DSP and Viant, all touted new agentic choices designed to simplify and enhance media workflows.
And AI brokers aren’t restricted to publishers and programmatic gamers. Artistic tech firm Kargo additionally unveiled a brand new agentic providing of its personal, designed to show artistic into usable advertisements that match the specs required by a rising slate of advert codecs.
As media sellers seek for higher methods to automate as a lot of their workflows as humanly doable (ha), agentic workflows current alternatives to automate duties that conventional programmatic merely can’t, resembling communications between companions and approving artistic. Which is why the potential of agentic AI stands to dictate the subsequent part of CTV promoting’s development.
In the event you’re itching to study extra about AI’s function in the way forward for CTV promoting development, you’ll want to snag a ticket to Convergent TV World in New York Metropolis on March 5–6.
Have any tricks to share? Wish to reconnect? On the lookout for somebody who desires to see footage of your cat being cute whereas doing completely nothing? Drop me a line at alyssa@adexchanger.com.
