Predictions season kicks off with one of the hottest topics in media - the power of TV. What does our panel of industry experts think will shift in 2026?

For brands, agencies, and technology providers, the coming year promises both opportunity and disruption in the TV ecosystem as new players, measurement frameworks, and formats shape how viewers engage and how advertisers invest.

So what will cut through the static in 2026? We asked a panel of industry experts from across the media to share their predictions for the new year. From advancements in programmatic trading and data collaboration to changing audience behaviours and creative innovation, their insights reveal how CTV’s next chapter will redefine what it means to watch, measure, and monetise television in the digital era.

"Incremental reach to incremental impact."

As the lines between linear and digital continue to blur – with smart TV ownership now reaching around 62% of adults (closer to 70% among affluent households) – the ability to pair creative brand storytelling with measurable performance is becoming increasingly important. From our vantage point as a unified platform – operating both an SSP and DSP – we’re seeing this convergence first-hand, as advertisers and broadcasters alike seek to combine emotional resonance with data-led accountability in CTV.

In 2026, I think we’ll see this go a step further: Moving from incremental reach to incremental impact, as advertisers leverage ACR and attention data to prove real outcomes. In the UK especially, collaboration amongst broadcasters, OEMs and tech platforms will be key to bringing fragmented ecosystems into a cohesive, data-driven and creative-first TV marketplace.

Lisa Kalyuzhny, Vice President of Sales, EMEA, Nexxen

"The future belongs to CTV."

CTV advertising was among the ad tech trends in 2025, and it will keep gaining momentum in 2026 and beyond. CTV ad spending is expected to rise from approximately USD$33bn (£24.9bn) in 2025 to almost USD$52bn (£39.2bn) in 2029. Why? Viewers are migrating from traditional linear TV to streaming platforms; however, this isn’t the only reason.

CTV enables the combination of effective storytelling and digital precision. Marketers can deliver high-quality content to relevant audiences, measure performance, and optimise strategies accordingly. This is something unavailable for linear TV.

CTV also offers brands a chance to build deeper engagement through personalised experiences and measurable outcomes. Besides, CTV advertising is generally less expensive than linear marketing.

CTV isn’t just another screen – it’s an integration of technology, data, and creativity. Linear TV advertising still exists, but there is no bright future for it. It belongs to CTV.

Roman Vrublivskyi, CEO, Attekmi

"Enhanced targeting precision, creative automation, and attribution."

With ad-supported TV viewing on CTV and streaming already exceeding 40% in 2025, 2026 is likely to be yet another year of accelerating expansion in this market sector, attracting ~20% of the global video ad spend. This unstoppable growth, we expect, will be largely fuelled by the wider adoption of new, highly engaging ad units, particularly interactive shoppable ads and pause ads, which are gaining broad recognition among businesses on both the supply and demand sides. 

Of course, the stronger presence of agentic AI will also drive further CTV ad market expansion, especially in the programmatic space, enhancing targeting precision, creative automation, and cross-device attribution, among other things. 

And, more importantly, the rollout of new, CTV-centred standardisation initiatives by industry bodies such as IAB Tech Lab will help overcome some of the existing fragmentation challenges in the niche in 2026.

Natalie Romankina, CEO, AdPlayer.Pro

"More value through strategic partnerships."

CTV’s fragmented measurement may get worse before it gets better, but savvy broadcasters and streamers will forge strategic partnerships to deliver something more valuable: outcomes. The maturation of secure, privacy-compliant data clean room technologies will enable parties that once sat at opposite ends of the supply chain - such as media companies and retailers - to link ad exposure directly to the point of sale through first-party data aggregation.

While CTV will still be a platform for more traditional premium content partnerships, publishers will also be working hard to give the long tail of performance marketers - who make up the lion’s share of digital spend - a foot in the big screen advertising door with self-service marketplaces that emulate the simple buying experience of search and social

Christopher Hogg, Chief Revenue Officer, Lotame

"A rapid shift towards true person-level addressability."

The next era of TV marks the end of the household proxy. For years, CTV has promised digital-like precision but delivered broadcast-style targeting where we assume everyone on the sofa wants the same trainers. That compromise is over.

We predict a rapid shift towards true person-level addressability. Advertisers will no longer accept "home" as a unit of measurement. They will demand the "human". This is not just about efficiency but relevance. Technology finally exists to deliver adverts to specific demographics or frequency—measured against real people watching, not best-guess panels. Today it is possible to determine who is watching using privacy-first, on-device signals.

This granularity will be the dividing line between premium inventory and the rest. TV will finally combine the premium quality and trust of broadcast with the precision of performance media, unlocking the audience intelligence required to compete directly with the walled gardens.

Daniel Pike, Chief Product Officer, Covatic

"Fragmentation between linear and digital TV advertising will be removed."

The new era of TV advertising will be defined by Total TV, driven by advertiser demand for efficiency and comprehensive reach.

By 2026, the fragmentation between linear and digital TV advertising will be removed. Buyers want a unified audience across screens, alongside flexible, impression-based, and outcome-focused delivery. The current reality of siloed data, disconnected systems, and manual workflows is leading to underused inventory and missed long-tail revenue.

Broadcasters must act now. The future requires adopting a unified data and orchestration layer that merges linear and digital inventory, audience, and campaign data. This unification is critical to enable the Total TV vision, offering a single engine to support all sales channels - direct, self-service, and programmatic - while maintaining broadcaster control over pricing and packaging. This transformation ensures more efficient ad spend and improved performance measurement for buyers, future-proofing the business with flexibility and scalability.

Johan Liljelund, CIO & Executive VP, DanAds

"Success depends on uniting technology, measurement, and creativity."

Streaming TV is reshaping how media buyers reach audiences, fragmenting traditional viewing and demanding smarter decisions. Sell-side decisioning (SSD) brings intelligence closer to the impression, enabling media buyers to access higher-quality, contextually relevant video supply. By analysing rich streaming signals such as content type, genre, player size, and placement, SSD helps optimise inventory in real time, ensuring transparency, efficiency, and brand safety. 

For media buyers, this means every bid is informed by deeper insight, aligning creative with context to drive measurable outcomes. As UK audiences accelerate premium streaming adoption, media buyers are focusing on verified attention metrics and authentic storytelling to build trust. 

The future of TV is not just about scale. Success in 2026 will depend on uniting technology, measurement, and creativity to truly realise the potential of streaming as a trusted environment that delivers both scale and precision.

John Tigg, Senior Vice President, Buyer Development, EMEA, Index Exchange

"There’ll be a battle for advertiser access."

2026 will see the development and evolution of distribution. In the UK, all major broadcasters are now all utilising Youtube; ITV and Disney are sharing content across their platforms; and in France, TF1 and Netflix have partnered –  all in the name of finding audiences where they reside. These strategic plays will continue to evolve as media owners and advertisers see the benefit of bigger audiences by bringing content to the viewer.

As distribution evolves, there’ll be a battleground for advertiser access, which has already been brewing, via an arms race for inventory access, unique data propositions, and aggressive commercials coming into play. However, with all these shifts, we must remember what the ultimate goal is: delivering advertising in media that makes the most impact on audiences. This is the overriding and determining factor on where we place our advertising – not the tech and the pipes that deliver it.

James Cornish, Senior Vice President, International Sales & Partnerships, Vevo

"TV will become a fully cross-screen experience."

In 2026, connected TV (CTV) will move beyond the living room to become a fully cross‑screen experience. As streaming viewership matures, brands have new opportunities to extend their CTV strategies into out‑of‑home (OOH) environments - connecting with viewers during retail, dining, travel, and lifestyle moments.

CTV OOH will emerge as one of the fastest‑growing media channels, enabling advertisers to deliver TV-quality video in real‑world settings. The benefit goes beyond reach. CTV OOH creates contextual relevance, pairing curated content with real‑world environments that amplify attention and brand recall.

The next era of TV isn’t about more screens. It’s about one continuous viewer experience across all of them.

Brian Cullinane, Chief Commercial Officer, VideoElephant

"Location data to return to the spotlight."

Advertising keeps having to find new ways around an old problem: identity. In the early dot-com boom, media owners struggled to monetise their assets until advances in IP geolocation allowed them to give advertisers a first look at where traffic was coming from. Today, this issue is repeating itself as FAST streaming channels enjoy rapid growth, largely because they offer low-friction experiences that don’t require log-ins or paywalls.

We now need solutions that can drive precise targeting, attribution, and decisioning without persistent IDs, and while navigating the volatility of constantly changing IPs. In 2026, this means it’s likely location data will once again return to the spotlight as the industry explores how IPs can be stabilised and consistently mapped to help provide an anchor point for holding audience identity together.

Vinod Kashyap, Chief Product Officer, Digital Envoy

"We're past the era of CTV: it's just TV now."

For all that TV has changed in the last decade the emotive power of the screen has remained a constant. There is a reason why TV remains the most trusted platform and the one that delivers such consistent levels of growth for brands despite all the changes in the last seven decades. We put it into the hearts of our homes, we gather around it with our friends and families and we share in the storytelling, drama and connective moments it gives us. 

I think we’ve come full circle and gone past the era of CTV: we’re now starting to recognise that maybe it should just be seen as TV.  What CTV has given us is choice: choice as viewers from a multitude of options and choice as advertisers between multiple points of premium, high-engagement moments where we can reach our audiences. That reach might have fragmented and be harder to find in single moments (but shows like Traitors are evidence that good TV can still deliver big audiences) but that’s where excellent craft planning can help brands navigate this complex but exciting space.

Gregor Chalmers, head of broadcast, The Kite Factory