Study: Data and Measurement Problems Reduce CTV Ad Budgets

Why It Matters

The lack of show‑level transparency keeps advertisers from fully trusting CTV inventory, limiting growth in a channel that already commands strong audience engagement. Closing the data gap could unlock billions in incremental ad dollars across both traditional and digital media mixes.

Key Takeaways

• 86% of planners would shift TV spend to CTV with show-level data
• 65% would also move programmatic video budgets to CTV with content signals
• 100% of programmatic traders say show-level transparency is essential for brand safety
• 95% say lack of show-level signals prevents them from advocating CTV budget
• Gracenote's Content Graph provides program metadata to close the CTV data gap

Pulse Analysis

Connected TV has become a cornerstone of modern advertising, offering granular audience targeting that linear TV cannot match. Yet the rapid adoption of CTV is hampered by a fundamental measurement blind spot: advertisers lack visibility into the specific shows or content behind each impression. Without that context, brands struggle to prove brand safety, assess inventory quality, and justify spend, creating a hesitation that slows budget reallocation despite CTV’s proven engagement metrics.

Gracenote’s recent research quantifies this friction. The study shows that 86% of U.S. media planners would move more linear TV dollars to CTV if show‑level targeting were available, and a majority would also divert programmatic video (65%) and display (63%) budgets. Programmatic traders unanimously rate show‑level transparency as critical for brand safety, and 95% cite its absence as a barrier to advocating higher CTV allocations. These data points underscore a market consensus: content‑level intelligence is the missing piece that could accelerate CTV’s share of the overall ad spend.

To bridge the gap, Gracenote introduces its Content Graph, a source‑validated repository of program metadata—including genre, rating, language and unique identifiers. By layering this information onto ad impressions, the Content Graph equips buyers with the same transparency they expect from linear TV, enabling more accurate planning, real‑time optimization, and post‑campaign verification. As advertisers adopt these content signals, CTV is poised to capture a larger slice of the $200‑plus billion U.S. TV advertising market, reshaping the media mix and driving new revenue streams for both publishers and agencies.