In order to protect CTV from domination by tech giants, publishers, buyers and agencies need to take a leaf out of the Big Tech playbook, says Rob Webster, Co-Founder of Tau Marketing Solutions, laying out the developments shaping the CTV industry – and the approaches required to scale the channel into a “true performance powerhouse”.
The world of Connected TV (CTV) is evolving rapidly, and recent industry developments highlight how the ecosystem can unlock its full potential. Google’s policy change on IP address usage, Digital Envoy’s introduction of LOCID, and advances in AI all provide a roadmap for CTV to become more effective, measurable, and scalable.
For years, the dominant narrative around IP addresses in advertising was that they should not be used for targeting or tracking due to privacy concerns. However, this stance has softened significantly. Google’s policy shift, coupled with Digital Envoy’s technology, allows for more precise and privacy-compliant measurement and attribution. Progressive companies have been leveraging IP-based targeting for a while now, but this dramatically increases the potential for the industry. The biggest challenge now isn’t privacy but preventing CTV from being controlled by the tech giants —Google, Meta, and Amazon. This is a future that few industry players truly want.
Learning from the giants
CTV publishers, buyers, and agencies must take a leaf out of the tech giants’ playbook when it comes to scaling the channel. These dominant players are rapidly gaining market share in CTV, leveraging their extensive data ecosystems and ad tech dominance to capture budgets that might otherwise go to independent players. They succeed because they:
- Make buying incredibly easy – Advertisers can set up campaigns with minimal friction.
- Have strong measurement capabilities – Clear ROI attribution allows them to capture mid- and lower-funnel budgets.
Currently, while many brands use CTV for upper-funnel branding, performance and mid-funnel budgets remain dominated by the big platforms. To change this, the CTV ecosystem must fight back by embracing the latest technological shifts.
Breaking down the key industry news
- Google’s policy change on IP address usage
Google has softened its stance on IP addresses, acknowledging their importance in CTV targeting and measurement. This is a game-changer for the industry, enabling advertisers to track household-level engagement with confidence. By shifting the focus from purely IP-based tracking to a household-level approach, we open the door for privacy-preserving technologies such as clean rooms, non-ID solutions, and CDPs to enhance both safety and regulatory compliance while maintaining measurement precision.
- Digital Envoy’s LOCID: Enhancing stability and privacy
A major historical challenge in using IP addresses for CTV has been their fluid nature — household IPs change over time, reducing the accuracy of targeting and measurement. Digital Envoy’s LOCID technology solves this by providing a stable identifier that remains consistent despite IP changes. This improves signal quality, strengthens attribution, and is a win for both advertisers and privacy advocates since a LOCID functions as a household ID rather than a personal identifier.
One of the biggest advantages here is the ability to connect cross-device activity at the household level. If a viewer sees an ad on their TV but later visits a website via their smartphone, LOCID enables accurate measurement of that conversion path.
- AI’s role in unlocking the full potential of CTV
AI is rapidly advancing, making it cheaper, more powerful, and more secure, especially with the rise of open-source AI models. New models are being released all the time that already this year show how to lower AI costs, improve sustainability, and are increasing in capabilities like reasoning, leading to better outputs. AI-based media planning is set to explode in 2025, further enhancing the efficiency and precision of CTV advertising. For CTV, AI can:
- Identify patterns and associations in viewing and conversion data, improving planning and buying strategies.
- Integrate with traditional TV data sources (eg. Nielsen and BARB), geospatial data, media mix modeling, and other third-party datasets.
- Seamlessly match household data with IP-based insights, making audience targeting more precise and actionable.
By leveraging AI in these ways, CTV can bridge the gap between traditional and digital advertising, making it a more effective investment for brands.
CTV can become a beacon for independent media
The latest advancements in targeting and measurement will be critical in helping CTV compete with the dominant tech giants. By embracing AI, privacy-preserving solutions, and household-level tracking, CTV can level the playing field against Google, Meta, and Amazon. Unlike programmatic display, broadcast-quality CTV benefits from trusted content, strong advertiser relationships, and premium inventory — giving it a competitive edge.
However, CTV must be cautious to maintain its high-quality positioning. If it does not actively separate out low-value, long-tail inventory, it risks falling into the same trap as programmatic display, where fraud and low-quality placements have diminished advertiser trust. Curation will be key in maintaining CTV’s reputation as a premium advertising channel, ensuring strong demand and sustained growth.
CTV — particularly broadcast-quality CTV (as opposed to the long-tail streaming inventory) — benefits from high advertiser trust, strong industry relationships, and premium content. This puts it in a class above programmatic display. However, to maintain this position, CTV must ensure that quality remains high and fraud is kept out. One key solution is curation, which can help uphold standards and ensure advertisers continue to see CTV as a premium investment.
What’s needed: a unified ecosystem
The CTV ecosystem must come together around householding, as this has the most potential to unify planning, buying, and measurement — from traditional broadcast TV to CTV. This will ensure a more seamless and effective advertising experience that aligns with evolving consumer behaviour and technological advancements.
To capitalise on these opportunities, the CTV ecosystem must come together, ensuring that all sides adopt the benefits of householding, IP measurement, AI planning, alongside traditional techniques. This includes:
- CTV Publishers – Enhancing measurement, making inventory easier to buy, and incorporating more advanced capabilities to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
- Retail Media Networks – Partnering more closely with CTV companies and adding householding capabilities to their measurement systems to bring more retail advertisers into CTV.
- Ad Tech & CDPs – Upgrading their capabilities in AI and householding, supporting more robust targeting, attribution, and identity solutions.
- Agencies – Expanding their capabilities to maximise CTV’s potential by integrating new techniques and approaches with a particular focus on AI-based media planning, aligning new techniques with more traditional planning and data sources. Being able to do advanced planning, buying, and measurement globally, not just in key markets.
- Large Brands – Seizing this opportunity to take control of their data and integrate CTV into a holistic marketing strategy.
Final thoughts
The future of CTV is bright, but it must be built on the right foundations. The industry must ensure it doesn’t become dominated by Google, Meta, and Amazon. To stay competitive, it must keep innovating. The open market can achieve this by working together, ensuring that advancements in AI, IP-based measurement, and householding drive the ecosystem forward while maintaining high quality. Instead, CTV stakeholders must embrace IP-based measurement, integrate AI-driven insights, and work collaboratively to make the ecosystem more open, scalable, and performance-driven.
With the right approach, CTV can grow beyond being just a branding channel and become a true performance powerhouse. The pieces are falling into place — the industry just needs to act.
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