Though ad budgets are expected to remain tight in 2026, advertisers are bullish about connected TV’s prospects. Nearly 70% of CTV advertisers expect to increase their spending this year on the channel, with an average increase of 17%, according to new findings from Advertiser Perceptions commissioned by Tegna-owned Premion.
The top reason reported by advertisers for increasing CTV spend is the channel’s ability to reach highly engaged, opt-in audiences, per the report. The growing bets are a testament to CTV’s ability to prove its value through return on ad spend, said John Bishop, senior vice president of business intelligence at Advertiser Perceptions.
“Everything is being scrutinized so much more that getting [budget increase approvals] over the threshold with procurement has been challenging,” said Bishop. “Now, they’re able to prove [the metrics] out a bit more, so that when people say, ‘Hey, we’re going to increase our spend,’ there’s a groundswell of support behind that.”
Premion, which specializes in helping regional and local advertisers manage CTV and over-the-top advertising, commissioned Advertiser Perceptions to conduct its “2026 CTV/OTT Advertiser Survey.” The survey analyzes advertisers’ CTV priorities and spending strategies and breaks down how shifts like the rise of artificial intelligence are impacting their plans. Findings also highlight the complexity of video advertising, and how agencies are attempting to adapt.
For the study, Advertiser Perceptions executed an anonymous online survey including 151 ad agency or brand-side marketers involved in decision making around CTV and OTT advertising. Streaming TV advertising use was required for both 2025 and 2026. The study was conducted in October 2025.
AI ushers in fresh potential
Among those boosting CTV ad spend in 2026, 25% of the funding is coming from an overall ad budget increase. For others, the increased spend is being reallocated from other channels, including linear TV, print, radio and digital display.
Many advertisers see CTV as a critical component of their omnichannel campaigns, with nearly 90% of advertisers saying that including CTV increases ROI by reinforcing a campaign’s message. Ninety-seven percent say that a presence on premium video streamers improves ROI.
“Advertisers know how important video is in the overall mix as far as storytelling, whether it be at a higher level like brand building, all the way to mid-funnel and lower funnel, kind of creating some transactions at the lower end,” said Bishop. “They’re looking at metrics outside of just great brand awareness.”
As CTV bets increase, the channel is becoming more deeply ingrained in total video planning, per the report, with 55% of CTV budgets now being managed by hybrid or integrated teams.
“What we’re starting to see is that it’s all being planned together,” said Blake Hebert, senior director of publisher operations at Premion. “The teams are not necessarily siloed between linear and digital, and they’re looking at it more holistically.”
The potential of AI is driving even greater confidence in CTV, per the survey, with 58% of advertisers believing that AI functionality will be particularly valuable for real-time campaign optimization. Nearly half of those surveyed said that smarter audience targeting and segmentation would provide valuable improvements to CTV.
“One of the areas that I see a big growth in terms of what AI is going to solve for is a lot of the more boring things that a team has to look at as far as signals that come through from all the data,” said Herbert.
At the same time, advertisers are realistic about AI’s current capabilities and near-term promise, with only 44% of survey respondents believing that real-time optimization would become a widely available AI-driven functionality in 2026.
“I do think in some ways they are a little bit more grounded in reality, maybe because it’s taken a while for a lot of the promises that they’ve heard from the national level to really make their way down to the local space,” said Herbert. “From where I sit, it’s nice to know that there’s not an assumption that all this is going to get figured out in the next year.”
Still, CTV still faces significant challenges, many of which agencies have sought to address through new products and solutions. Many advertisers are concerned about fragmentation across providers, and one-third cited challenges with deduplicated reach and poor cross-provider planning due to walled gardens.
Nearly all advertisers said they see value in managing their CTV campaigns through a single platform. Ease of achieving scale for effective targeting was cited as the top advantage, followed by optimal reach and frequency and unified measurement, reporting and insights.
“Fragmentation continues to be an area where we see the need for a solution, particularly on the local level,” said Herbert. “I think it’s really important to have an understanding of the ecosystem and identify where there may be a walled garden.”
Helping agencies better understand the premium market is an opportunity for platforms and publishers to drive growth, Bishop explained.
“People don’t know what new products a premium streaming platform may have,” said Bishop. “Agencies are relying on the reps and their partners to educate them. I think that opens up a lot of opportunities to deepen the relationship.”
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