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CTV remains fragmented across broadcasters, streaming platforms, FAST channels, OEM environments and walled gardens. Each comes with its own uniqueness from audience targeting, formats and measurement approach. For example, this can make it difficult to build a richly defined audience, as they can on digital, and apply it consistently across CTV  platforms.

The next stage of CTV growth is therefore less about accessing more inventory and more about creating a common planning and activation framework across it.

The challenge of fragmented targeting

CTV buyers are often forced to build audiences separately within individual platforms. That creates two problems. First, audience definitions can vary from one environment to another and are often limited, making it harder to apply a consistent targeting strategy across the campaign. Second, additional targeting layers can come at the expense of reach, often to the point where targeting is avoided altogether.  Demographic, behavioural and interest based filters significantly increase the effective CPM,and this has to be replicated within each platform, compounding the narrowing available inventory pool and reducing working media. As media budgets come under greater scrutiny, the question is increasingly whether the same audience precision can be achieved in a more efficient way. One approach is to move the audience targeting  into the planning stage.

Rather than relying exclusively on targeting controls within each platform, planners can use georeferenced data to identify the areas where relevant audiences are more concentrated before media is activated. This allows location to act as a common layer across otherwise disconnected CTV environments.

From audience data to market intelligence

Location based planning is not simply about targeting a postcode. Its value comes from connecting different datasets through geography. Depending on market availability, this can include household characteristics, transaction behaviour, mobility, telco signals, online interests, social engagement, store sales and contextual data. Together, these signals can provide a richer view of both who the audience is and where the strongest market opportunity exists.

For advertisers, that changes the role of location from a simple targeting parameter into a planning framework. It can help identify areas with higher audience affinity, stronger category demand, greater retail opportunity or different competitive pressures, all before media investment begins.

Breaking down the CTV silo

This area based approach also creates opportunities beyond CTV itself. Consumers move between environments throughout the day. They may encounter a brand on an outdoor screen, research it on mobile and later watch television at home. Yet media planning often treats those moments as separate channels. Location provides a way to connect them.

The same geographic intelligence used to plan a CTV campaign can also inform prDOOH, Display, Mobile and Audio activity. This makes it possible to build a more consistent omnichannel strategy without depending entirely on individual identifiers. The opportunity is especially relevant for retail and FMCG brands. Transactional data can highlight areas with higher category spend, while mobility data can reveal where store visitors originate. CTV can then be activated in the households within those areas, helping connect upper funnel media with real world retail behaviour.

Context matters too

Audience opportunity is not static. Mobility changes throughout the day. Weather changes behaviour. Events create new moments of relevance. Online interests and consumer activity can also shift. This means the next evolution of CTV planning is likely to combine audience affinity with Real Life Context. Rather than simply deciding who to target, planners can increasingly ask:

Where is the opportunity strongest right now?

That creates the potential for more dynamic activation, where media pressure, timing and creative can respond to changing real world conditions.

Measurement needs to evolve with the medium

CTV measurement is another area where the industry is still developing. Metrics such as impressions, Video Completion Rate and Cost per View remain important, but they do not fully reflect the way CTV is consumed. Unlike personal devices, television is often watched by more than one person within the household.

That creates a need for household level measurement, including metrics such as households reached, total viewers and completion rates adjusted for co viewing.

Beyond media delivery, there is also growing demand for measurement linked to attention, brand uplift, sales uplift and incrementality.

As CTV becomes more integrated with wider media and retail strategies, its measurement will need to become equally connected.

A more connected future for CTV

CTV does not need another silo. Its next stage of growth will depend on making it easier to connect audiences, inventory, channels and outcomes.

Location intelligence offers one way to do that by providing a consistent framework across fragmented environments, while helping planners understand not only who they want to reach, but where the strongest opportunities exist. For agencies and advertisers, that could mean more consistent audience planning, less dependence on costly in platform targeting, stronger omnichannel integration and a clearer understanding of campaign impact.

The future of CTV may therefore be less about choosing between platforms and more about finding the intelligence that connects them.