Navigating the future of CTV: strategic crossroads for broadcasters at CTVWS 2026

We’ve recently wrapped up the Connected TV World Summit (CTVWS) 2026, and if there is one overarching takeaway, it’s that broadcasters and content owners are at a serious strategic crossroads. Across my two presentations covering how ad-supported TV providers can create new revenues and where they should prioritise technology investments, a deeply nuanced reality emerged. The traditional broadcast playbook needs a major rewrite to survive this maturing market.

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Here are my key reflections on the most contentious trends, the shifts in ad spend, and the pragmatic approach broadcasters must take moving forward.

Following the audience: streaming is becoming an expensive luxury

Perhaps the most contentious trend we discussed (and one that didn’t feel fully settled on the floor) is the idea that broadcasters should follow their audience, rather than force them to come to their owned platforms.

Running a proprietary streaming service is a high-cost proposition and is rapidly becoming an expensive luxury. The major streaming brands have become so ubiquitous and so heavily invested in streaming infrastructure, UI, and discovery tools that it’s a reasonable question as to whether many broadcasters should really be doing their own streaming.

Instead, this is a world of strategic partnerships. Broadcasters differentiate on content, often local and live, and should be following their audience wherever they are, whether that’s onto YouTube or Netflix, in an AVOD or FAST channel variant, or a traditional BVOD app. Whatever works. This is a much more pragmatic approach to being a broadcaster, taking local audiences and content as the core competence rather than getting bogged down in global streaming and monetisation technologies.

Empowering SMBs: the new engine for CTV ad spend

When it comes to monetisation, CTV is a maturing market, and the traditional big brand advertising that used to accrue largely to broadcasters is shifting directly to hyperscale internet platforms. To make up for this, unlocking small and medium brand (SMB) spend is critical to the future of streaming.

CTV is becoming an ideal bridge between mass broadcast and targeted online ads, making it highly attractive for SMBs. This is all about ease of access for companies that probably don’t have dedicated teams dealing with online ad spend. By using AI tools to lower the entry barrier for creating ad creatives, and leveraging self-serve ad managers (like those launched by Netflix, Disney+, and Roku) smaller brands can access premium TV inventory without breaking the bank. It is a great way for brands that have previously only spent on Google, Meta, and TikTok to start adding heavily targeted TV ads to their mix.

Performance advertising is the new broadcast reality

However, accessing this SMB spend brings its own challenges: smaller brands are much more interested in targeted performance advertising than traditional brand building. With the move to streaming, there is increasing demand from agencies and advertisers for detailed analytics on how successful campaigns are influencing consumer buying decisions.

Historically, TV hasn’t been great at measuring this impact, but TV advertising must better support performance advertising to keep CPMs high and offset technology costs. This is where retail media data comes in. Retail media allows streamers to do true performance advertising, making closed-loop attribution a reality. By matching ad exposure and customer identification with actual online and brick-and-mortar purchases, broadcasters can offer the verification that modern digital marketing demands.

Where to spend the tech budget: live content and software, not cloud

If streaming platforms are potentially great partners, and building bespoke ad tech is increasingly complex, where should broadcasters prioritise their technology investments? The answer is content.

Content production (particularly in live news, sports, and events) is driving the lion's share of investment. Broadcasters recognise that compelling live content is their unique selling proposition (USP), especially as streamers are aggressively coming for the best live content and buying into tier-1 sports.

Behind the scenes, the critical technological transformation is that software, not cloud, is vital for flexible investments. In fact, cloud spend is flattening out for the media sector as companies opt for hybrid environments. The key trend is software replacing hardware. Software-defined workflows, running on-premise or in hybrid combinations, offer the low latency, cost control, and reliability critical for top-tier live production without the astronomical recurring costs of cloud-only infrastructure.

Winning at CTV advertising | Request the full presentation deck

Where to spend your tech budget | Request the full analysis

The Bottom Line

We are likely to see further consolidation in the CTV space, but there is also a necessary refocusing on what broadcasters do that is uniquely differentiated. By utilising smart partnerships for audience delivery, embracing retail data to attract SMBs, and investing heavily in live content and software-defined production, broadcasters can navigate this complex new ecosystem efficiently.

To receive the full presentation on CTV advertising, please request it here. For more information on optimising your tech budget, request my analysis here. Alternatively, you can contact us directly at info@carettaresearch.com.

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