Convergence moves from strategy to execution
For years, the industry has talked about total video. In 2026, advertisers are operationalizing it. Our study shows that integrated or hybrid teams now control 55% of CTV and streaming TV budgets, reflecting a meaningful shift in how organizations plan and activate video investments.
Rather than managing linear and streaming in silos, marketers are increasingly tasked with orchestrating reach, frequency and performance across the full TV ecosystem.
Advertisers themselves see the impact. Four in five agree that combining linear TV and CTV drives stronger results across key brand and performance metrics, from awareness to ROI and ad recall. Convergence is becoming the operating model.
Why CTV continues to earn budget share
The drivers behind CTV’s momentum remain consistent, but the conviction is deepening. Advertisers cite the ability to reach highly engaged, opt-in audiences (44%) and combine television’s branding power with digital precision (40%) as the primary reasons for increasing investment.
Importantly, the funding is not coming from a single source. While 25% of increased spend reflects overall budget growth, the majority is being reallocated from other channels, including linear TV, display, search and social. That reallocation tells an important story: CTV is winning competitive share within the media mix.
The underrated story: Local and regional acceleration
While national brands helped establish the early momentum behind CTV, the next phase of growth is increasingly being fueled by regional and local advertisers. Nearly nine in 10 CTV advertisers agree that streaming TV will continue to grow as a key channel for local and regional marketers, not just national brands.
At the same time, more than two in five advertisers completely agree that CTV will play a growing role in digital-first buying within total video strategies. This shift reflects a broader market reality: The barriers that once limited advanced TV to large national campaigns are falling.
Improved targeting, more flexible buying models and expanded premium inventory are making it increasingly feasible for regional advertisers to execute sophisticated, full-funnel video strategies. For many local marketers, CTV now represents the first true opportunity to combine television’s brand impact with measurable, performance-oriented outcomes at regional scale.
Premium environments matter more in a converged world
As budgets rise and planning converges, advertisers are also becoming more selective about where their messages appear. An overwhelming 97% of CTV/OTT advertisers agree that advertising within premium video environments improves ROI performance. And nearly nine in 10 say CTV increases brand favorability and strengthens positive brand associations.
In a fragmented ecosystem, premium supply is increasingly viewed as the foundation for both brand safety and measurable performance, particularly as campaigns expand across multiple screens and channels.
Higher expectations are reshaping CTV’s next phase
With more growth comes greater scrutiny.
Advertisers point to fragmentation across providers as the biggest barrier to achieving scale, with roughly one-third citing challenges related to deduplicated reach, cross-provider planning and walled gardens. Nearly all advertisers see value in managing streaming TV through a single platform, particularly for achieving scale, optimizing reach and frequency and unifying measurement.
AI is also emerging as both an opportunity and a pressure point. Real-time optimization is viewed as the most valuable AI capability by 58% of advertisers, yet only 44% believe it will be widely available in 2026.
Advertisers believe in CTV’s power, but they expect the ecosystem to become simpler, smarter and more accountable.
What this means for advertisers now
As total video converges and local adoption accelerates, marketers should focus on a few key priorities:
· Plan holistically across linear and streaming. Convergence is now an operational reality.
· Prioritize premium, scalable inventory. Quality environments are increasingly tied to measurable outcomes.
· Simplify execution where possible. Platform fragmentation remains a meaningful drag on performance.
· Prepare for AI-driven optimization. Expectations are rising quickly. Early adopters will have an advantage.
CTV’s growth story is not about streaming replacing linear; it’s about building a more unified, performance-driven video ecosystem – one that works for national brands and local advertisers alike. In 2026, that convergence is finally taking hold.
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