In the early days of CTV, a small pool of inventory and buying options created what might be described as a seller’s market, with limited supply commanding high CPMs from publishers. But as the market matures, increasing volumes of inventory and more ways to buy are arguably shifting CTV towards a buyer’s market – though premium inventory still gives publishers plenty of control.
VideoWeek asked six industry leaders from both the buy- and sell-side if they view CTV as a buyer’s market or a seller’s market.
Alexandra Sturgess, AV Partner, dentsu UK&I
CTV is increasingly shifting from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market.
The diversification of the ecosystem – and the plethora of publishers now knocking on the door – means that buyers have unprecedented access to a huge swathe of inventory that can be optimised in real-time through programmatic platforms. This gives us the ability to apply granular targeting and use AI to optimise media against business outcomes, rather than traditional media metrics. In that sense value shifts away from simply owning inventory and towards the buyer’s ability to make intelligent decisions across platforms.
But this doesn’t erase seller power. Premium CTV inventory remains differentiated and often scarce, with platforms such as Amazon and Netflix retaining strong USPs through their content, audiences and data. The balance of power therefore shifts towards the buyer in determining where and why to invest, while premium sellers retain leverage over the environments buyers ultimately want to access.
Dave Sargent, UK Head of AV at Mindshare
Both. From the sales side, viewing of CTV is only growing and demand for streaming platforms isn’t going anywhere. Viewers still want quality content on demand, meaning CTV suppliers have a compelling advertising vehicle to take to market – even more so when you factor in the multitude of distribution platforms CTV inventory is available through now. Whether its direct, DSPs or third-party sellers, the opportunity to access inventory is only increasing which benefits the sellers and buyers alike.
It’s not just the variety of access points; CTV buyers also have a strong choice in the number of suppliers in market. This helps to keep pricing competitive and, in turn, puts greater accountability on each channel to justify its place on a plan. As CTV budgets increase, with marketers having the flexibility to switch budgets from one month to the next, it keeps the emphasis on suppliers to provide a quality product and service that offers the levels of targeting, data insights and reporting advertisers are looking for.
Polly Hibbert, Chief Customer Officer, Nutcake
Looking at CTV through the wider video landscape, I’d say it’s increasingly a buyer’s market. Audiences move between TV, streaming, YouTube, social and creator content, often without making the distinctions between them that we do as an industry. For advertisers, that creates much more flexibility in where and how they invest their video budgets.
That doesn’t mean sellers have lost their power. For the very best content, particularly live sport and big cultural moments, scarcity still matters and advertisers will pay a premium to be there.
But overall, buyers have more ways to find audiences, attention and engagement, and more information to decide what’s worth paying for. For me, that shifts the balance of power towards the buyer.
Joe Evea, Managing Director UK, Titan OS
I would define CTV as all content streamed on the television screen, whether through a smart TV, streaming stick, games console or set-top box.
Given that definition, I would argue that CTV is still more of a buyer’s market — but only in aggregate. Advertisers now have more choice, better addressability and more ways to manage frequency than they had in television. This consequently puts pressure on sellers, particularly those offering interchangeable, lower-quality inventory.
For a TV operating system though, the picture is different. The TV OS is the gateway to the screen, influencing what people watch and how they discover content. This opens up valuable advertising opportunities before the viewing begins — on the homescreen, in search and through recommendations — as well as within the programme itself.
The challenge lies in giving this a value. Buyers will rightly demand transparent data, independent measurement, meaningful reach and a quality user experience. Overall, CTV favours the buyer — but when reach, attention, context and trust come together, the strongest platforms (and those who sell them) will begin to hold more of the cards.
Lindsay Turner, VP, Digital Growth & Strategy, BBC Studios
CTV might increasingly be a buyer’s market, but I’d argue premium attention is still a seller’s market.
There’s certainly no shortage of video inventory, and buyers have more choice, more platforms and more ways to access viewers than ever before. But not all impressions are created equal. What’s genuinely scarce is content people actively choose to spend time with, come back to and care enough about to become fans.
At BBC Studios Digital Brands, our job is to build out the digital ecosystems around some of the world’s best-known IP, taking those brands to viewers wherever they choose to spend their time. YouTube is a big part of that, and increasingly that viewing is happening on the main TV screen.
For viewers, those distinctions matter far less than what they want to watch. On the same screen, they can move between a favourite show, a creator they love, streaming and live TV, with each competing for their time and attention.
That creates an opportunity for advertisers that goes beyond the volume of CTV inventory available: connecting with brilliant IP, passionate fandoms and genuine attention in the places where audiences are already choosing to watch.
David Bradford, Managing Director, Europe, Bloomberg Media
With the proliferation of accessible video environments in recent years, and improvements in the contextual and programmatic technologies that allow us to deliver for relevance better than ever before, it seems quite clear that CTV is a buyer’s market in 2026. But even within this “buyer’s market”, premium sellers have a strong bargaining position as opportunities to advertise to highly engaged audiences remain scarce.
Marketers have a wide selection of options to choose from, allowing them to shop around before beginning long-term advertising campaigns, but not all of these spaces capture full audience attention equally. The strongest CTV environments are those with distinctive content, trusted talent and formats that audiences actively choose to spend time with. These are the premium environments where audiences choose to spend their time and therefore turn up as more engaged viewers. As publishers expand beyond traditional live video into social, vodcasts, events and talent-led formats, the opportunity is increasingly to build campaigns around an audience and an editorial proposition, rather than just buying impressions.
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