Why Brands Are Moving More Advertising Budget to Streaming TV

The way people watch television has changed — and advertising budgets are following the audience.

Streaming TV and Connected TV (CTV) give brands an opportunity to combine two powerful elements: the impact of television advertising and the data-driven capabilities associated with digital marketing.

For advertisers, particularly ecommerce and growing brands, this means television can increasingly be used not only to build awareness but also as part of a measurable growth strategy.

From Buying Programmes to Buying Audiences

Traditional television advertising is often planned around channels, programmes, demographics and viewing schedules.

Streaming TV introduces a more audience-led approach.

Depending on the platform, advertisers can use signals such as:

• Demographics

• Location

• Household characteristics

• Interests

• Viewing behaviour

• Lifestyle and audience segments

• First-party and publisher audience data

This changes an important question for advertisers.

Instead of starting with "Which programme should we advertise on?", brands can increasingly start with:

"Who is our ideal customer, and how can streaming TV help us reach more people like them?"

Reach New Customers Beyond Meta and Google

For many digital-first businesses, Meta and Google account for a significant proportion of advertising investment.

These platforms can be extremely effective, but concentrating spend within the same ecosystems can make it harder to find genuinely new audiences as a brand grows.

Streaming TV provides another source of customer discovery.

A potential customer might first encounter your brand through a full-screen streaming advertisement, search for it later, see a Meta advert the following day and eventually purchase through your website.

In that journey, streaming helped create the demand that performance marketing subsequently captured.

Premium Advertising Is Becoming More Accessible

One of the biggest changes created by streaming is accessibility.

Traditional television campaigns could require substantial commitments, which made some businesses reluctant to experiment with the medium.

Digital and streaming advertising products can offer more flexible campaign structures, giving smaller and growing brands opportunities to test premium video without immediately committing to a major national television campaign.

That makes streaming particularly interesting for SMEs, startups and ecommerce brands accustomed to testing advertising before scaling investment.

Big-Screen Attention Meets Digital Targeting

A streaming TV impression is different from many other digital impressions.

Your advertisement can appear full-screen on the biggest screen in the home, using sight, sound, movement and storytelling to communicate your message.

Compare that with social media, where an advert competes with posts, messages, notifications and the constant opportunity to swipe to the next piece of content.

Streaming gives brands an opportunity to combine the creative strengths of television with more sophisticated audience selection.

That's a powerful combination.

Advertising Is Reshaping the Streaming Business Model

Streaming platforms themselves are also embracing advertising.

Subscription-only models are increasingly being complemented by advertising-supported tiers and services.

For streaming businesses, this can create multiple sources of revenue: subscription income from viewers alongside advertising income from brands.

For advertisers, the result is more opportunities to appear alongside premium streaming content and reach audiences who previously may have been difficult to access through advertising.

More Creative Doesn't Have to Mean Bigger Production Budgets

Streaming is also changing how brands think about video production.

Rather than creating one expensive commercial and using it unchanged for an entire year, advertisers can develop multiple versions of creative and test different messages, products and calls to action.

AI-assisted creative tools are accelerating this trend by helping marketing teams develop concepts, variations and adaptations more quickly.

However, the fundamental rule hasn't changed:

Good targeting can't rescue bad creative.

The advertisement still needs a clear proposition, distinctive branding and a compelling reason for the customer to remember the business.

Streaming Can Make TV More Measurable

Streaming advertising also creates additional opportunities for measurement.

Depending on the platform and campaign, advertisers can potentially analyse metrics such as:

• Impressions

• Reach and frequency

• Completed views

• Cost per completed view

• Website activity

• Conversions

• Brand lift

• Incremental reach

• Return on advertising spend

For ecommerce brands, the goal should increasingly be to understand what happens after someone sees the advertisement.

Do branded searches increase? Does direct website traffic rise? Are more new customers arriving? Do sales increase when streaming advertising is added to the media mix?

Those are the questions that can turn TV advertising from a media expense into a measurable growth investment.

Streaming Platforms Benefit Too

The advertising model also creates commercial advantages for streaming services.

Advertising inventory generates additional revenue, while unsold inventory can sometimes be used to promote the platform's own programmes, new releases or subscription products.

This creates an ecosystem where content attracts audiences, audiences attract advertisers and advertising helps support investment in content.

Streaming and Linear TV Should Work Together

The rise of streaming doesn't necessarily mean brands should abandon linear television.

The two can perform different jobs extremely well.

Linear TV can deliver mass simultaneous reach, particularly around live sport, news and major entertainment.

Streaming and VOD can extend campaigns into additional viewing occasions and provide more audience-led targeting opportunities.

Social and digital video can reinforce the message.

Search can capture the demand the campaign creates.

Ecommerce can turn that demand into sales.

The opportunity is to connect these channels rather than force them to compete.

The Future Is Total Video

Consumers don't think about advertising categories when they sit down in front of a television.

They simply choose what they want to watch.

They might watch live football tonight, stream a drama tomorrow and catch up with another programme at the weekend.

Brands need to follow that behaviour.

The future isn't simply TV versus streaming or brand advertising versus performance marketing.

It's about reaching the right audience across screens, using premium creative to get their attention and then measuring what that exposure contributes to the business.

For growing brands, streaming TV represents an opportunity to go beyond the platforms they already use, reach new customers and bring the power of the biggest screen in the home into a modern performance marketing strategy.