Largely speaking, TV was simpler in the days of yore. Sure, there was the stress associated with missing the start of your favorite sitcom (in the days before DVRs or streaming), or the conflict that arose when two of your go-to shows aired opposite one another. But just a decade ago, watching TV was relatively straightforward.
Fast forward to today, and watching your favorite TV content has become an increasingly complex and decision-riddled endeavor.
First, there’s the question of what device to watch on: Your phone? Tablet? Smart TV? Laptop? All of the above (and, perhaps, all at the same time)? Then, there’s the consideration of where to watch: Hulu? Netflix? Disney+? Peacock? YouTube TV? HBO Max Max HBO Max? Or maybe even good ol’ cable? Finally, there’s the choice of just what you’re going to watch—that is, if you have enough decision-making energy left to tune into anything other than your go-to comfort reruns.
For advertisers, this shift in audience habits and emerging opportunities has invited a host of new challenges: Just where, exactly, is my audience? How do I navigate the increased fragmentation of the TV landscape across linear and streaming? And how can I best meet my audience where and when they are watching to fully capitalize on today’s TV advertising opportunities?
This complexity has all culminated in convergent TV: a new mindset for TV advertising wherein strategies extend beyond any individual channel and instead account for the proper balance between traditional/linear TV, over-the-top (OTT) streaming, and connected TV (CTV). And though OTT and CTV are increasingly establishing themselves as forces to be reckoned with among viewers, linear TV still maintains a strong foothold. By understanding the 2025 convergent TV landscape and the innovations shaping it, advertisers can strike the right balance in their TV ad investments and connect with viewers in key moments of impact.
The last few years have seen significant shifts in the convergent TV landscape, including the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes, more streaming platforms releasing their own ad-supported tiers along with new original content, Netflix launching its own in-house adtech platform, an increase in streaming-exclusive live event broadcasts (including MLB and NFL games, comedy specials, late night shows, pro wrestling, and boxing matches), and more.
Alongside these shifts in the TV landscape itself, audience viewership and ad spend trends have evolved as well:
When it comes to viewership, streaming is still on the rise: In March 2025, it amassed 43.8% of all TV usage, up from 38.5% just a year earlier. As streaming grows in popularity, more and more viewers are opting to cut the cord (or, in the case of younger viewers, have never used a cord at all).
At the same time, time spent watching traditional TV is steadily decreasing. From 2020 to 2025, the average time spent with linear TV has dropped by 43 minutes, representing a decrease of nearly 23%. It’s likely not a coincidence that, during that same time period, OTT streaming services have exploded in popularity, and that time spent with CTV has increased by more than 82%. Though connected TV is especially popular with younger generations—Gen Z turns to CTV for more than half of their TV screen time—older viewers are doing a good amount of streaming themselves.
So, just what is driving these trends? Pandemic lockdowns famously helped accelerate the shift toward streaming and drove substantial CTV adoption. And in an age when consumers have grown accustomed to content being available on-demand and on-the-go, the increased convenience and flexibility that streaming offers—not to mention the ability to watch across multiple devices—also plays a significant role.
Additionally, beyond the extensive libraries of classic content that have long lived on streaming platforms, the emergence of new original content produced exclusively for streaming services has further increased the appeal of OTT and CTV. Coupled with a significant slowdown in new scripted content on linear TV in 2023 stemming in part from Hollywood labor strife, it’s not a huge shock that linear TV fell below 50% viewing share for the first time in 2023 and continues to hover at just 44.5% in 2025.
As more and more viewers choose a bundle of streaming services over a bundle of cords, advertisers are following in kind, attempting to connect with audiences precisely where they’re consuming their TV content.
Here’s what the convergent TV advertising landscape looks like in 2025:
This growth in OTT and CTV ad spending has, unsurprisingly, coincided with increased viewership on those platforms, but their advertising appeal extends beyond just eyeballs. With signal loss and privacy-friendly advertising being key considerations for advertisers in 2025, CTV in particular can appeal as a privacy-first haven for digital advertising—after all, CTV has always allowed advertisers to connect with audiences in a targeted and privacy-friendly way.
CTV and OTT also lend themselves to highly targeted advertising, greater flexibility and customization based on user demographics and behaviors, as well as enhanced analytics and measurement capabilities. This is due, in large part, to the growth of programmatic connected TV.
As more households shift toward streaming-first habits, advertisers are gravitating toward programmatic CTV for its flexibility, scale, and efficiency. In 2025, more than 90% of both display and video ad spending on connected TV will be transacted programmatically, with advertisers enticed by its “best of both worlds” value proposition: the ability to connect with consumers on the big screen where they’re streaming, as well as the ability to place those ads in an automated, optimized way thanks to the benefits inherent to programmatic technology.
Beyond reach, programmatic CTV empowers advertisers with greater control over their campaigns, allowing advertising teams to react in real time—adjusting budgets, targeting, and/or creative based on performance. This agility is especially critical amidst today’s economic volatility, where marketers are expected to do more with less and prove results quickly. More recently, advancements in AI are improving the relevance of programmatic CTV campaigns, giving advertisers richer metadata to inform their contextual placements, as well as allowing for more granular reporting.
In the context of convergent TV, programmatic CTV brings the flexibility and precision of digital into the premium, big-screen environment of television. By enabling dynamic, data-driven campaigns, it can help advertisers navigate fragmentation, optimize performance, and build a holistic video strategy.
In 2025, convergent TV presents a significant opportunity to all advertisers—particularly as more and more consumers shift towards streaming.
Across both linear and streaming, live sports advertising continues to be a powerhouse opportunity for advertisers looking to reach large and engaged audiences. And where live events used to be available only via cable/broadcast (think: the Super Bowl being broadcast live exclusively on CBS back in 2010), these events are increasingly being streamed simultaneously via connected TV and on OTT platforms (for instance, Super Bowl LIX being broadcast on Fox, Tubi, and Fubo). Increasingly, games are even being aired exclusively through these streaming services (including NFL playoff games on Peacock and Prime Video, the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight on Netflix, an array of NCAA sporting events airing on ESPN+ and, soon, a large package of NBA and WNBA games set to stream on Prime Video).
In the year ahead, linear will continue to be a majority of viewers’ go-to home for live sports—and, in turn, a great way for advertisers to engage broad and captivated audiences in real-time. But the traditional lines are getting blurrier, and as viewers increasingly turn to streaming for sports and other live events, advertisers can experiment with targeting these audiences via tailored and contextually relevant ads—ensuring their message resonates during these high-impact moments wherever those viewers happen to be tuning in. With the forthcoming launch of ESPN’s new streaming service, those digital opportunities will only continue to expand in the months ahead.
Advertisers also have an array of new and emerging ad-supported tiers available to them on different OTT streaming platforms. Netflix’s ad-supported tier is up to 94 million subscribers, up from 70 million in just November, and Disney reports having 112 million users in the US watching ad-supported content across Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Add in the fact that Amazon’s ad tier of Prime Video now reaches more than 130 million US customers, and this all amounts to a significant amount of high-quality inventory that advertisers can use to connect with highly engaged audiences. And, by tapping into this inventory via private marketplace deals (PMPs) and programmatic guaranteed, advertisers can align their ads with streaming content most likely to resonate with their unique audience.
Viewers today consume content across a variety of devices—and often, on multiple screens at once. To capture and hold audiences’ attention, many advertisers are embracing interactive elements in their linear TV, OTT, and CTV ads.
Innovations like shoppable ads and QR codes, in particular, can enhance the TV advertising experience and deliver value to consumers and marketers alike. Shoppable TV allows advertisers to seamlessly integrate e-commerce elements into their content, providing viewers with a direct pathway to make purchases. QR codes can play a similar role, offering a quick and convenient way for viewers to access additional information or promotional offers, and giving advertisers an easy way to meaningfully measure impact and attribution for specific ads.
Using these interactive elements allows viewers to instantly act on their interest in a product or service. And, better yet, the features seem to be resonating with audiences, with one study finding that 70% of viewers like TV ads with QR codes and 62% would scan a QR code if they saw one in a relevant ad.
By leaning into new opportunities in the convergent TV landscape to capture and maintain audience attention—and, of course, balancing linear, OTT, and CTV ads with other channels to create a holistic, omnichannel experience for viewers—advertisers can engage with audiences intentionally and elevate their campaigns.
With the waves that artificial intelligence is making across the digital advertising landscape, it’s no surprise that it is also poised to shape the future of convergent TV advertising. Generative AI, in particular, has the potential to revolutionize how ads are targeted, personalized, optimized, and integrated into content, particularly within the streaming landscape.
Take, for instance, contextual targeting. Contextual advertising has long been used in the TV advertising space to align ads with the content viewers are watching. Think: ads for kitchen gadgets during cooking shows, vacation ads during travel programming, home security systems during true crime shows, etc. Prior to recent advancements in AI, contextual targeting was less precise and relied on broader categorizations, such as whether a show was a comedy vs. a drama or was geared towards adults vs. teenagers. Now, with AI-powered contextual targeting, advertisers can tailor ads not just to specific shows, but individual scenes within a show. For example, during a heartwarming family reunion scene in a popular drama series, an AI-driven platform could identify the emotional tone and insert a commercial for a family-oriented product, such as a minivan or a family vacation resort.
At this year’s upfronts and NewFronts, several major streaming players showcased their new AI features:
Generative AI is also enabling dynamic content creation for ads, letting advertisers create countless sets of variables for ad personalization across programmatic channels. For example, a car commercial can be dynamically adjusted to feature different backgrounds, music, and even dialogue, tailored to match the viewer's preferences and viewing habits. If a viewer is watching a suspenseful thriller, the commercial might take on a darker, more intense tone, whereas the same commercial might be lighter and more playful if the viewer is watching a comedy. This level of personalization ensures that advertisements are more engaging and relevant to individual viewers, thereby increasing their effectiveness.
AI's ability to synthesize vast amounts of data and create highly personalized content extends beyond just visuals and tone. It can also adapt messaging based on demographic data, viewer behavior, and real-time feedback. This means that an ad campaign can continuously evolve, optimizing itself to better resonate with its audience. For example, if data shows that a particular segment of viewers responds better to humorous content, AI can adjust the ad to incorporate more humor, making it more appealing to that specific audience.
The next several years will continue to see evolution in the convergent TV landscape, as the shift from linear dominance to streaming supremacy continues. Advertisers who navigate this complex terrain with agility, embracing the emerging trends and opportunities, are poised to make the most of this transformative era in TV advertising.
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