Connected TV has crossed from emerging channel to core viewing environment. Streaming now accounts for a growing share of how audiences consume video, how households engage with advertising, and how attention is distributed across screens.
Advertising budgets are moving in the same direction, though at a slower pace. That delay has created a widening gap between where audiences spend their time and where brands invest to reach them. Heading into the second half of 2026, this attention-spend gap stands out as one of the most measurable sources of unrealized efficiency in the media mix.
The gap is visible in time spent, in ad allocation, and in downstream performance signals that increasingly point back to CTV exposure.
CTV usage continues to expand across demographics, with particularly strong adoption among younger audiences. According to eMarketer, CTV holds the largest audience share among U.S. Millennials, with 62 million Millennial CTV viewers this past year. Gen Z and Millennial viewers also show the highest rates of second-screen behavior, reinforcing CTV’s role in multi-device journeys.
At the household level, structural shifts are well underway:
Time spent reflects this change. While adults aged 65+ still spend nearly five hours per day watching linear TV, younger audiences spend far less—just 1 hour and 12 minutes per day among adults aged 25–34, per eMarketer. Streaming fills the remainder.
CTV ad investment has grown rapidly (more than 370% since 2019) but it still trails where audiences actually are. By 2024, the CTV ad market is expected to be almost $13 billion larger than it was in early 2020, and the gap with audience behavior keeps closing.
|
CTV |
Linear TV |
|
|
Ad spend growth since 2019 |
+370% |
Declining |
|
2023 spend |
$25.09B |
$61.31B |
|
Projected 2027 spend |
$40.90B |
$56.83B |
|
Share of total TV growth |
Primary driver |
Contracting |
Attention has already migrated at scale. Budgets are still catching up.
One reason CTV has moved quickly into performance planning is its programmatic foundation. Over 90% of CTV ad spend is transacted programmatically, enabling automation, targeting, and optimization at scale. Approximately 40% of programmatic CTV spend flows through YouTube, with the remainder distributed across premium streaming platforms, FAST channels, and device ecosystems.
Advertisers are actively reallocating budgets toward CTV:
This reallocation reflects changing perceptions of efficiency, reach, and measurement rather than a single-channel preference. As privacy changes complicate mobile-only growth strategies, CTV offers reach and influence earlier in the user journey.
As CTV adoption has grown, its role in performance outcomes has become clearer. Streaming environments are where attention is earned. Mobile environments are where action occurs. Second-screen behavior connects the two.
More than 83% of American TV viewers use a smartphone or tablet while watching television, and that second-screen behavior consistently places CTV earlier in the conversion path, even when the final action happens elsewhere. This pattern aligns with how viewers behave:
YouAppi’s cross-platform retargeting strategies explore this interaction in detail, reflecting how coordinated CTV and mobile strategies improve efficiency and ROI across the funnel. If you want to go deeper on how this works in practice, the YouAppi CTV & Mobile 2026 Growth Guide breaks it down with actionable strategies for the year ahead.
From a measurement perspective, this reinforces the value of viewing CTV as a contributor to performance rather than a standalone reach channel.
The gap comes down to three operational realities. Most attribution models credit the last interaction, not the CTV exposure that influenced the decision earlier. Media planning is still organized by channel, not by how users actually move across screens. And connecting what someone watched on TV to what they did later on mobile remains technically hard to do well.
The result: budget decisions keep favoring channels where performance is easiest to see, even when influence is happening elsewhere.
What makes this particularly pressing now is that the conditions around it are shifting fast. U.S. linear TV ad spend is expected to fall to $48 billion by 2026 as budgets migrate to CTV, but inventory pricing hasn't dropped with it, meaning fewer eyeballs at the same cost. Programmatic CTV buying has reached scale across all major platforms. AI-driven optimization is reshaping how budgets get allocated in real time. And privacy changes continue to complicate mobile-only growth strategies.
The window to act on this misalignment is open. It won't stay that way.
Aligning investment with attention allows advertisers to:
As budgets continue to rebalance, the attention–spend gap will narrow. Until then, it represents a clear and actionable opportunity for performance marketers.
Streaming continues to capture a growing share of daily media time, while second-screen behavior connects CTV exposure directly to downstream action. The remaining work for advertisers is alignment—between attention and investment, influence and measurement, reach and results.
If you're planning your CTV and mobile strategy for 2026, we put together a practical guide to help you do exactly that.
👉 Download the YouAppi CTV & Mobile 2026 Growth Guide and start turning attention into performance.
YouAppi helps brands turn CTV attention into measurable performance.
Through CTV and mobile retargeting, cross-screen measurement, and performance-focused optimization, YouAppi works with advertisers to align media investment with real user behavior and real outcomes.