As local TV broadcasters lean further into connected TV (CTV), it’s worth asking a strategic question: Are we selling it the right way or just the way we learned to sell digital?
When I was leading a local media digital sales organization, I often questioned why we were selling CTV like display, relying on the same multi-tactic targeting strategies. A local station might have 10 million monthly CTV impressions, but once those layers of targeting are applied, only 10 or 20 thousand impressions may qualify. That’s precisely why most broadcasters offer a CTV extension product so they can tap into hundreds of premium streaming video partners and deliver campaigns at meaningful scale.
Most CTV inventory today is packaged and sold with sophisticated targeting: household income, ZIP code, purchase intent, behavior, device usage, content preferences and more. It mimics digital display and online video: deep segmentation with higher CPMs and attribution-heavy metrics.
But there’s a paradox here. Broadcast TV is, and always has been, the ultimate reach medium. If that’s our strength and if our most valuable campaigns are often driven by broad awareness, why are we selling CTV primarily as a precision tool?
Despite the fragmentation of media consumption, broadcast television remains a powerhouse for reach. In 2024, 97 of the top 100 most-watched telecasts aired on broadcast TV. The Super Bowl, NFL games, the Oscars, political debates, breaking news — these are still appointment-viewing events, often exclusive to over-the-air broadcasters or their affiliates.
This isn’t just anecdotal. Broadcast TV still reaches greater than 70% of U.S. households in any given week. No other platform offers that kind of market penetration. For brand marketers, local businesses and regional advertisers, the reach and power of broadcast TV cannot be duplicated.
Broadcast builds brands. It drives awareness. It informs and persuades communities. But CTV is different, and it’s being sold differently.
CTV has been a lifeline for broadcasters in the digital era. It allows us to monetize streaming inventory with programmatic targeting and audience extension. It enables dynamic ad insertion, tighter frequency control, more granular performance metrics and data to measure attribution.
Naturally, we’ve leaned into these advantages. Broadcasters sell CTV often with dozens of audience slices: age, gender, household income, purchase intent, content consumption behavior and even past purchase history.
For digital-native advertisers or performance-driven campaigns, this makes sense. These buyers are used to ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), CPCs and funnel-based metrics. CTV gives them what they want.
However, have weallowed precision to overshadow reach?In doing so, are we underselling the true value of CTV as part of a broadcast-led media strategy? This restrictive approach could mean leaving significant revenue on the table and underserving advertisers whose primary goal is broad awareness, a core strength of broadcast.
CTV doesn’t have to be just a lower-funnel channel. Used correctly, it can be an extension of linear broadcast, a digital companion that captures cord-cutters, light TV viewers and younger demos unreachable via traditional means.
But that requires us to rethink the way we package and sell it.
What if broadcasters sold CTV more like linear, on simple age and gender demographics or even household reach and impressions, especially for brand-building campaigns?
By simplifying the segmentation, data targeting costs decrease and scale rises. That creates a stronger story for awareness-driven advertisers. It also aligns more closely with how many national marketers plan media around maximizing reach for top-of-funnel exposure.
Then, for advertisers seeking precision, we layer in advanced targeting in addition to broad-reach strategies, not instead of them.
This two-pronged approach may offer the best of both worlds:
CTV as reach extender: Sell CTV on broad demos to extend broadcast reach to hard-to-capture audiences. Think cord-nevers, streamers, mobile-first users.
CTV as performance layer: Offer precision targeting for retargeting, purchase intent or conversion-focused initiatives.
One reason broadcasters have defaulted to highly segmented CTV sales is because it mimics digital and that’s what many buyers are used to. But part of our role is to educate clients on how to strategically use broadcast to maximize reach while delivering outcomes.
If the objective is reach, we should discourage overly narrow targeting. If the goal is conversion, then precise targeting makes sense. But we must help advertisers understand the tradeoffs and what they’re giving up when they over-target.
We also need to watch the ecosystem closely. Retail media, YouTube and social are all chasing performance dollars. If we want to own the top of the funnel — and we can — we must differentiate.
CTV doesn’t need to be either/or. To deliver the best outcomes, broadcasters should implement an integrated, flexible approach:
Pair local spot campaigns with CTV-based reach extension.
Combine mass reach with precision follow-up.
We can now sequence creative across platforms, manage frequency holistically and unify measurement. But only if we stop treating CTV like a digital silo and start treating it as part of the broader TV ecosystem.
Broadcasters hold an enviable position with dominant local news, live events, sports rights, trusted anchors and legacy relationships in every DMA. If we can think of CTV as a tool that can provide precision when that is important and upper-funnel consideration with brand awareness via age/demo targeted reach extension, we can help advertisers broaden their reach to those streaming-only viewers.
Of course, it also means local broadcasters can sell more of their O&O inventory. Advertisers seek to align their brand with the local trusted news/station brand, therefore fewer impressions are being sent to other content channels. The local advertiser benefits from having their impressions show up on a trusted local news brand.
And I’m not discounting the value of the CTV extension products. When an advertiser is looking for a combination of lower-funnel precision with broad reach, these video solutions are ideal for them.
CTV is a powerful tool. Let’s sell it in a way that amplifies the strengths of broadcast, not replaces them. That means sometimes dialing back the segmentation, sometimes focusing on impressions over precision and always asking: What’s the advertiser really trying to achieve?
Because if it’s reach, awareness and trust, broadcast TV cannot be beat. Add in a smart CTV companion strategy and the research shows we’ve got the industry’s best solution for reach and performance.