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63% of U.S. advertisers are prioritizing CTV at least as much as linear TV during upfronts

A seated crowd watches shaking hands on a connected TV.

Illustration by Dave Cole / Getty / Shutterstock / The Current

Here’s the thing:

This upfront season, many marketers are likely to focus their strategies on connected TV (CTV) at least as much as linear TV, according to new research out this week. A report from The Trade Desk Intelligence and Advertiser Perceptions, What Advertisers See in CTV, finds that most U.S. marketers surveyed (63%) are leading their 2024 upfront buys with CTV or equally weighing streaming and linear investments.

Meanwhile, just 36% of advertisers will lead with linear TV this season.

Data debrief:

The report, which surveyed 150 U.S. agency and brand leaders to understand their CTV and linear TV marketing strategies, shows that many advertisers are following consumers in the mass shift away from cable and toward ad-supported streaming. In fact, nearly two-thirds of marketers said their upfront strategy would lead with CTV (34%) or balance CTV and linear TV buys (29%).

The findings reveal that the number of self-described “linear-first” marketers dipped 15% in the past year, while those planning to balance their linear and CTV buys surged 36%.

Perhaps most indicative: 95% of marketers surveyed plan to maintain or increase their share of spend on programmatic CTV in the next 12 months, the study said.

Why it matters:

The research also suggests the presence of new ad-supported streaming platforms is informing marketers’ strategies. Indeed, 39% of marketers surveyed — or 4 in 10 — are buying CTV because more inventory is available. When respondents were asked about their priorities when constructing CTV campaigns, almost half (47%) ranked its ability to reach their target audience as No. 1.

These findings align with data from a recent The Trade Desk Intelligence report on U.S. consumers’ time on the open internet, revealing that 43% of Americans say they’re spending more time on streaming platforms because more of their favorite content is on CTV. On top of that, GlobalWebIndex reports that cord-cutters now represent over half of all Americans.

Readout graph: CTV is crossing the tipping point with advertisers. Graphs shows what surveyed marketers reported that their upfront strategies would include: linear, CTV or a balance of both.

The Current is owned and operated by The Trade Desk, Inc.