How connected TV bridges linear TV’s incrementality gap

TV viewing habits have transformed beyond recognition over the past five years. Structural shifts in the way we all watch TV have been accelerated by the global pandemic, rapid technological advancements, and a surge of big-budget premium content offerings. This transformation is clearly heading in one direction: audiences are moving toward on-demand, flexible viewing, with traditional linear TV trying to keep up and evolve to meet changing preferences.

Pre-pandemic, on-demand services like OTT platforms (Netflix, Amazon Prime) and BVOD offerings (iPlayer, ITVX) were already gaining ground, but Covid-19 accelerated this shift, positioning these platforms as the preferred choice for millions. Today, they’re perfectly aligned with the on-demand, always-connected lifestyles we lead.

Take a straw poll of 100 people asking what they watched last night, and the chances are, most will reference on-demand or streaming content, rather than linear TV. Ofcom’s annual study into UK media habits shows that fewer than half of 16-24-year-olds watch broadcast TV weekly, and while the over-65s remain loyal, live TV accounts for barely half of viewing among 55-65-year-olds, with even less for younger groups.

Linear TV delivers reach but struggles with efficiency

Linear TV remains an attractive channel for advertisers due to its unmatched reach, delivering audiences at scale in ways that on-demand services can’t yet match – though they’re catching up quickly.

However, linear TV advertising can be inefficient. Once you exceed a frequency of 3+ or 4+, diminishing returns kick in as campaigns repeatedly reach the same viewers, without substantial incremental gains.

Audience Store research consistently shows that a typical linear TV advertiser now achieves around 80% of reach and efficiency with the first half of their campaign spend; beyond that, additional investment yields only marginal improvements.

At this point, reallocating budget to connected TV (CTV) can increase reach and efficiency by tapping into audiences who are less likely to watch traditional TV. However, bridging the familiar world of linear TV and the evolving landscape of CTV requires a careful approach.

The bridge between linear TV and CTV

A seamless connection between linear and CTV can be achieved with a CTV partner with a Barb (Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board) licence, who also has the capability to match Barb data with digital impression level data. By leveraging historical Barb data, it’s possible to analyze TV campaign performance and identify audience segments – based on age, demographics, and other factors - that haven’t been reached through linear TV alone.

This capability allows advertisers to plan, buy, and report against Barb data for CTV campaigns, filling gaps in reach. Whether it’s targeting under-35s and ABC1 audiences who are increasingly difficult to reach through linear TV, or honing in on specific demographics, geographies, or consumer interests, the precision of CTV offers flexibility that traditional TV buyers haven’t fully explored. Audience Store’s Targetcast CTV solution, for instance, enables advertisers to leverage this granularity, integrating seamlessly with the familiar metrics that linear TV buyers trust.

Precision measurement: the digital advantage

Beyond targeting, CTV brings the advantage of precise digital measurement. Whilst Barb is widely regarded to be broadly robust and trusted by the industry, it is worth noting that £4.9 billion of linear TV advertising is still traded in the UK based on its probabilistic model, sampling just 7,000 UK households. In today’s world of deterministic, real-time, digital metrics, this 43-year-old, predominantly analog methodology, risks becoming outdated.

With CTV, measurement is digital, deterministic and can deliver granular insights into campaign performance in real time. Campaign results can be tracked and analysed for true incrementality above linear performance (Barb data matched with impression-level data), clearly showing the additional reach that CTV delivers over linear alone.

With solutions like Targetcast, advertisers can measure the incremental impact of their CTV campaigns, ensuring their digital spend complements linear investment by extending audience reach and avoiding ad frequency saturation.

TV is TV: delivering content on viewers’ terms

Ultimately, TV is TV. Today’s viewers don’t care whether content arrives via linear broadcast or digital streaming - all they care about is quality content delivered to the big screen conveniently. CTV is well-positioned to meet this demand, providing a premium viewing experience on the viewer’s terms.

While CTV is certainly having its moment in the spotlight, it isn’t the singular solution to every advertising need, and traditional TV budgets should not be entirely shifted to CTV. However, when CTV and linear TV are combined thoughtfully, using and deduplicating trusted BARB data with digital impression-level data, advertisers can achieve incremental reach and fill coverage gaps in a way that maximizes both effectiveness and efficiency.

In blending CTV with linear TV, advertisers are no longer faced with an either/or decision. Instead, they have a powerful combination that can unlock reach, target precisely, and measure performance with unprecedented accuracy – a combination that, for many, is quickly becoming a no-brainer.

Also published in: The Drum